Chinua Achebe For the CSET

Reverend James Smith

Mr Brown’s successor, he openly condemns Mr. Brown’s policy of compromise and accommodation and attempts to wipe out all aspects of Igbo culture.

District Commissioner

The man behind the whole affair, who handcuffs the six leaders of the village and imprisons them. At the end of the novel, he orders his men to take down the dead body of Okonkwo from the tree, and bury it.

Themes

The major theme of the novel is that British colonization and the conversion to Christianity of tribal peoples has destroyed an intricate and traditional age-old way of life in Africa. The administrative process that the British use on African cultures is cruel and inhumane.

Another theme is of Okonkwo and how he is ambitious and hardworking and believes strongly in his traditions.

Okonkwo refuses to break away from his traditional and religious values, which results in his own death. He refuses to conform to the forces of domination and therefore, the reader feels respect and admiration for such a strong individual.

Things Fall Apart Summary

The novel deals with the rise and fall of Okonkwo, a man from the village of Unuofia. Okonkwo was not born a great man, but he achieved success by his hard work.

Okonkwo has his faults, one of them being his temper and the second one being his pride. His stern exterior conceals a love for Ikemefuna, who lives with him; an anxiety over his son Nwoye (who he fears is too lazy); and an adoration for his daughter Ezinma. His bad temper leads to beating his second wife during the Week of Peace.

His tribe expels him when he accidentally shoots a boy and kills him; for this he is banished from the village for seven years and has to live in his mother’s village of Mbanta.