Skip to main content

In the novel "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe, how does the author portray Igbo culture and tradition?

In his novel Things Fall Apart, author Chinua Achebe subtly reveals Igbo culture through three different methods.


First, he illustrates the sociocultural, philosophical, and practical elements of Igbo culture through anecdote. The different stories and events that follow the life of Okonkwo, his protagonist, and his family members reveal different elements of Igbo culture through exposition. 


However, Achebe contrasts this natural and familiar revelation of Igbo culture with a presentation of Igbo culture through a Western imperialistic lens. With the appearance of the white missionaries and later colonists, Igbo culture, along with its superstitions, religions, and social practices, is painted as foreign and "inherently inferior." 


The most interesting portrayal of Igbo culture is in fact through the style of the novel itself. Achebe writes Things Fall Apart in the manner of Igbo narrative, drawing many seemingly unrelated events and anecdotes together to paint an overarching narrative with richly complex characters, conflicts, and themes. This style is drastically different from Western culture, with its direct trajectory, and is an implicit demonstration of Igbo cultural values and practice. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.