Things Fall Apart
by Chinua Achebe
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Book Reviews of Things Fall Apart
Book Review: Perhaps the Best Book I've Ever Read
Summary: 5 Stars
Perhaps my favorite book ever, April 20, 2005
Reviewer: Justice - See all my reviews
This is a novel of startling beauty and without a doubt one of the best novels ever written. However, I want to thank the reviewer who noted that in high school he or she did not appreciate the book as much as they did in college. I could see someone in high school being turned off by the book, particularly if they were not taught about Achebe's own intentions in creating the book's plot and characters.
For one thing, some reviewers seem not to understand that Achebe is not endorsing some of Okonkwo's character traits and see Okonkwo as some kind of chauvinistic cultural ideal of the pre-colonial African man. Rather, as Achebe has often said in interviews and essays, Okonkwo, and the entire portrait of his village was evoked to show both the beauty-and the flaws-of pre-colonial African society. As in all human societies, injustices were perpetrated.
Okonkwo, then, is someone Achebe feels for-and wants us to feel for-but who he feels is tragic due to his rigidity and other problems. He is not intended to be a figure for emulation at all. Indeed, at times Achebe demonstrates the narrowness of Okonkwo's thought and the reality that other cultural models of masculine behavior existed in Ibo society at the time. For instance, Okonkwo is shocked when he hears one of his friends note that a great Ibo village leader has died and that the man would never do anything without first consulting his wife. Confronted with the fact that not everyone took the narrow view of male/female relationships he did, Okonkwo shows incredulity. Achebe shows with carefully crafted, elegant and subtle language that Okonkwo has become so wedded to one vision of Ibo cultural identity that ultimately any change introduced into that society destroys him. He clings to one vision of masculinity in order to feel he has lived a life opposite to that of his father, who had a completely different disposition but died in poverty.
Some readers don't like the book, therefore, because they confuse Achebe's sympathy with Okonkwo for his endorsement of Okonkwo's behavior, which is completely different. That does not allieviate the pain we feel when Okonkwo is defeated by a society that refuses to acknowledge that the Ibo have a great history and society and demands he conform to the Western encroachment. When Okonkwo feels his society is so degraded that it can no longer exist he can no longer exist, either. Achebe knew that a cultural purist could not survive under colonialism, so he treats the case with deliberate ambiguity. We are as upset as Okonkwo's friend when he dies (I cried for days) and furious at the petty and ignorant summary the Englishman expresses at his death, his dispassionate arrogance that mistakes Okonkwo's national pride for some "primitive" superstition, but at the same time we know he couldn't have survived in a new world and he could not accomodate change, something Achebe thought was dangerous.
Achebe once said that if he could convince his fellow Africans through his novels that their history had not been "one long dark night" but rather a rich and complex tapestry of sophisticated cultural, religious, and artistic expressions he would have succeeded at his goal. He certainly succeeded-although precolonial Africa had many kingdoms, the Ibo were supposedly without a leader and therefore people assumed it meant that they were a "disorganized tribe". However Achebe's book demonstrates the meaning, internal organization, poetry, ritual, and traditions that all human societies have and this book, which shows a world of beauty gone forever, fulfills Achebe's noble goal of wanting to demonstrate the validity of African history and does so more than many history books I have read. Those history books are accurate, of course, but although they demonstrate what Achebe does they often do not pull you in emotionally, which is far more effective and I believe that is why everyone should read this book-perhaps not in high school, however. I don't know, I didn't have it assigned to me then, so I don't know if I would have appreciated its nuances as a teenager. But it's not worth alienating people who might otherwise pick it up. For adults, it's a read you can't put down and a work of singular beauty. FOR ADULTS IT IS NOT A DIFFICULT READ: I don't want anyone to get turned off by those who said it was, or to assume that it will be dense, hard to get through, or anything like that-its simple but potent language is one of its most amazing qualities.
It is the classic of the African continent, a tragic book that will lead any reader into a deeper understanding of colonialism, the colonial lie about "peoples without history",and Africa. Its richly rendered scenes are also some of the best written in the English language.
Read this book, it will change your life! (For the better).
Book Review: Dull, unpleasant, and disrespectful to African culture
Summary: 1 Stars
Eyes have this odd tendency to skim across words without any comprehension when reading dull pages. This book, with its complete lack of plot, confusing character names, boring details, and unlikable characters, is the perfect example. You can read pages and pages of this book without absorbing a word. Both the poor writing style and context will turn anyone off.
The book has many flaws, the first of which is its inability to interest the reader. The storyline is lacking: boring, full of inconsequential details, ceremony after ceremony, none of which are given any significance in the book. The shallow, one-sided characters are impossible to relate to, and the main character, Okonkwo, is simply appalling. He beats his wife, kills his adopted son, and will do anything to preserve the image he wants to maintain. He and other characters are static, far too predictable, and lacking any sort of depth.
This book is often touted as an example of brilliant African literature, but rather than glorify Africa and Africans, it in fact degrades them. More detail below...
Disproving the Western image of Africans as savages is in fact one of author Achebe's purposes in writing the book (or so we learn in English class), but in his unbalanced portrayal of Ibo culture he in fact strengthens rather than weakens this stereotype. One of Achebe's first depictions of Ibo culture is when he illustrates how murder is perceived in Umuofia. He describes the honor and admiration that can come with it, such as the status Okonkwo gains with his "trophies" from war. These "trophies" may come as a shock to readers.
"In Umuofia's latest war he was the first to bring home a human head. That was his fifth head; and he was not an old man yet. On great occasions as the funeral of a village celebrity he drank his palm-wine from his first human head."
He shows the killing of other people as an honorable act in Ibo culture, even though he later changes his mind and attempts to claim murder can also be dishonorable. Rather than stressing the more peaceful aspect of their culture, Achebe paints an image distasteful to most Western readers. Drinking palm-wine out of heads? Certainly not a good way to destroy the stereotype of the bloodthirsty African savage.
But not only does he reinforce the stereotype, but Achebe also manages to show Africans as heathens. In the egwugwu ceremony (yet another ceremony), Achebe portrays the villagers as disbelieving in this own gods. At times Achebe gives examples to prove that the Ibo believe in their gods, but with much contradicting evidence, such as the fact the women recognize that their "god" is Okonkwo in disguise but say nothing), the claim is not very convincing. Instead, he shows how they cling to gods they know are false and thus insults the Ibo culture by portraying the people as disbelievers in their own gods.
He describes all their cruel practices. For example, Nwoye has heard that twins are put in earthenware pots and thrown away in the forest, a practice not only repugnant to Western readers, but also mentioned in the context of faults with the Ibo culture. Leaving innocent babies to die in a forest has no excuses in Western culture; it is wrong. They not only would die a slow, painful death of starvation, but also face the risk of being eaten alive or brutally attacked by wild animals.
In a book little more than 200 pages, Achebe could have filled the pages with the positive - and lesser-known - aspects of the Ibo culture. Instead, he chooses to include all the values and attitudes that would appear immoral and criminal to Western readers. He shows that Nwoye does not agree with these brutal practices, but it does little help, since Achebe makes Nwoye renounce his old ways and become a Christian. This sends the message that the morals of the British are superior to those of the Ibo people, who are cast aside as heartless villains. Near the end of the book, Achebe suddenly attempts to make things fair; he portrays the British as unkind and merciless as well. However, this cannot make up for his consistent focus on more "savage" ways of the Ibo people. Therefore, Achebe simply reinforces negative and xenophobic stereotypes, not only of the Ibo - but of any culture that is different than one's own. Horror stories of African savages are nothing new to Westerners, and Achebe does no more than provide a few more, in the place of a fresh, enlightening view that would instead emphasize the best aspects of Ibo culture.
Please, don't read this book. Schools have not yet realized the truth about it and continue to portray it as a celebration of African literature, not the terrible piece of writing it is, so if you are forced at school to read, I offer my deepest sympathies. If, however, you wish to read it for fun, I warn you yet again: This is an awful book.
Book Review: Hiroshima
Summary: 4 Stars
In reading Hiroshima, the author, John Hersey enlightens the reader about the tragedy of the first atomic bomb ever dropped on a city at the exact point at which it hits the town of Hiroshima, 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945. Hersey wrote this book to show the strength of the human spirit. The story is told though the eyes of six survivors that were fortunate enough to escape death. These six civilians discuss their own story of how they managed to survive and keep on going against all odds. Against illnesses, deformities, the human suffering around them, poverty, unlivable conditions, and also getting through a time of discrimination. Even though these six people were injured themselves they still helped the more unfortunate ones that were not as luck as they were. These human beings were willing to live, even after experiencing one of the worst moments in their lives. The survivors had to carry on their own personal lives through their will to survive overcoming their obstructions. They had to go through the rest of their lives with the physical and emotional pain brought to them by the bomb. The six characters lived different lives both before and after the bomb, but were all compelled through the tragedy they suffered and their drive to overcome and live. The morning of August 6, 1945 was one that many people will not forget. Everything was going to plan and people were out doing their normal thing when at 8:15 a bright flash of light covered the whole area. Few could have anticipated its potential devastation. The author let the reader meet the survivors and the reader was put into their shoes. Hersey uses these six characters to show the horror of what really happened when the atomic bomb struck. Miss Toshiko Sasaki, a young single woman who broke her leg and was left unattended to had the drive to go on after being maimed and abandoned by her fiancé to become a nun. Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura had a courageous struggle to keep herself and her children alive, forced to work laborious jobs earning barely enough for food. She became very weak due to the exposure to radiation making her rest from work more often than she is use to. Dr. Terufumi Sasaki was the only doctor to survive in his hospital completely unharmed. He became aware of his good fortune and provided medical help for thousands of injured victims. He had worked for days with no rest trying to save the lives of those who had not as been as fortunate as he had. Years later he died regretting that he had been unable to do more. Dr. Masakazu Fujii had been injured too greatly to help attend to patients, but later went on to fight for peace and raise funds for a variety of projects in the name of the Hiroshima victims. Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge was a German priest who was compelled to work beyond his condition in an attempt to rescue his fellow priests and friends. Kiyoshi Tanimoto, a pastor, helped hundreds by transporting wounded civilians and bringing supplies to and from Asano Park. John Hersey wrote the book through first hand accounts not only after the bomb was dropped, but almost forty years later to update on the survivors. Hersey really cares about the story of these six people. He is fascinated with what they have to say and to hear their life story and visits them forty years later to see how they are doing now. The way Hersey uses these people to tell the story is a creative way of writing and is very intimate. This book was a very detailed and smooth flowing book. Since his resources were so direct the book seemed to put the reader in the shoes of these six survivors. The reader stays with the story as each individual tells his or her own personal interaction. Hersey takes the reader though every encounter that each individual comes across and how each individual manages to keep on going and not give up no matter how tough the situations might be. Yet he also manages to keep the reader wanting to know more and go deeper into this tragic, however heroic story. This book is a good investment in reading; it is educational, but also very emotional. Hersey takes the reader though the six survivors accounts with pain and agony, but leaves the reader with a greater understanding of human capabilities and the wisdom that the drive to survive cannot be bounded by language or nationality. This book is without doubt worth reading because it shows the human beings' motivation to live, even after experiencing one's worst time in life. I highly recommend this story of six of the bravest and courageous people that had to experience one of the worst times of their life and now have to live with the affects brought on to them by it.Book Review: DENIAL OF THE ONE YOU WOULD BECOME
Summary: 4 Stars
At its deepest level, Things Fall Apart is a human tragedy. Okonkwo despises his father because of the shame his lazy ways bring to his family. Okonkwo determines to be nothing like his father. With the exception of the brief time in which he comes to love Ikemefuma, he succeeds. Okonkwo gains fame in Umofia for being everything his father was not: hardworking, a man of stature, and concerned with the business of the community.Okonkwo's rejection of his father, Unoka, is an act of social self-preservation. It also becomes a form of self-hatred. His denial of the parts of his father that exist inside himself makes him famous and revered. It is also his undoing as a human.
On the surface all seems well. Under the surface Okonkwo is a boiling mess of bottled emotion and impaired judgment. His determination to not be like Unoka causes him to put public appearance over internal intuition. This leads directly to his slaughtering of Ikemefuma. It also costs Okonkwo whatever humanity he may have had.
This incident robs Okonkwo of any ability to deal sanely with the changes taking place in his society. His rage breaks upon the immovable rocks of colonial power. In his final futility, he becomes totally unlike his father--who at least enjoyed life.
The things Okonkwo's homeland of Umofia reveres in their "great men" (and they are all men) are things that lend themselves to the preservation of people. Qualities like strength, the ability to create wealth (yams), and adherence to social and religious norms are all valued.
Okonkwo manically lives out these qualities in an attempt to not become a "failure" like his father. Though Okonkwo's heartlessness manifests itself a few times, and some of his fellow villagers notice it, his greatness is already established in his titles and past actions. The unease of others is set aside in acknowledgement of his actions.
This position Okonkwo has achieved falls apart the first time with his accidentally killing another. Yet even here, after he has, so to speak, "paid his debt to society"--he is allowed to return, his status is intact. This return and the change in society that has taken place in the interim, leads to the second, permanent "falling apart."
Okonkwo returns to a society being reshaped by the principles and, more importantly, resources of colonialism. In the face of the vast wealth and power of the colonial government the basis for Okonkwo's greatness looks rather silly and pathetic. What are yams in the face of guns?
Okonkwo's status dissolves into irrelevance as his society moves on. All that he has accomplished in his life washes away in the face of those who have more. The grass withers, the flower fades and Okonkwo's greatness goes with it.
The two white missionaries who come to Umofia, Mr. Brown and Mr. Smith, represent two very different worldviews. One (Brown) is a true-blue, "the last shall be first, the greatest is the least among you" kind of Christ-Follower. The other (Smith) represents the masses who crucify the true Christ in the name of co-opting the ways and power of those who are in charge of the temporal world.
Brown is a missionary with zeal for the lost. Not only that, he evidences a desire to help lift up the down-trodden of Umofia's society. In the face of aggression from the people of Umofia, he attempts to lovingly turn aside their wrath. In all this, Brown shows himself (by his love for others) to be a follower of Christ.
Smith on the other hand is a lackey of the state. His concern is not the condition of the souls of the people of Umofia. His concern is that no one "rock the boat" of colonial society. He has no inner restraint in dealing with the problems he finds in Umofia. The smallest gnat of a problem is met with the crushing hammer of the colonial power at his disposal.
Of course there are more temporal dangers in truly following Christ than in debasing oneself before earthly power. Smith's ways show results, Brown's largely do not. The difference is in the audience they are performing for. I choose Brown's.
I give Things Fall Apart my heartfelt recommendation.
Book Review: Very authentic
Summary: 5 Stars
*contains spoilers*
I loved this book. Chinua Achebe writes a sad and melancholic tale about a man called Okonkwo in a small African tribal village called Umuofia. Okonkwo is a man feared and respected by everyone in his village and beyond. He is a wrestling champion and man who enjoys fame and respect because of his hard work. He is a self made man. His father was considered a looser because he did not work very hard to sustain his crops and did nothing else but play music and laze around. He died as an outcast.
The only thing Okonkwo fears is failure and being compared to his father. So he works hard, becomes prosperous and lives comfortably with his 3 wives and children.
But life is not fair to him. After working hard in his village to gain a title and a good life, he is exiled from his fatherland because he kills a boy by mistake. When European colonists come to his village and build a church and start converting the villagers into Christians, Okonkwo wants to take action, he wants to fight the Europeans and preserve his culture and religion and his gods. But no one else wants to fight. Okonkwo watches his son join the Europeans and turn into a Christian and he is in utter despair because he cannot do anything about it.
This book has a sad and tragic end.
What I liked about the book was the simple descriptions of the day to day life of the people in a tribal village. I enjoyed reading about how their lives revolved around the growing and harvesting of Yams, how their beliefs in their gods affected the men and women in the village and their unease and anger when Europeans come and build a church in the village.
I enjoyed reading about folk tales passed down from generation to generation.
Even though I like the book I would like to mention a few points here as I have heard a lot of criticism and bad reviews for this book.
`Things fall apart' has been termed as a literary masterpiece. But if you looking for outstanding language, this book is not for you. The language is as simple as it can get, which I think is the beauty of it. If you want to clear your prejudice that African villages are backward and primitive and you think reading this book will give you an insight into why they what they do, do NOT read this book. I thought the tribal customs and beliefs were down right against humanity and whatever way the author would have put it, I wouldn't have believed otherwise. Would you approve of leaving new born twins in a jungle because twins are considered evil? Mutilating a dead infant's body so that it isn't born again? Out casting a man from his village and his loved ones because he has a disease?
If you are looking for a good plot and well rounded and lovable characters, again this book is not for you. I hated Okonkwo. He was a tyrant and he repeatedly beat his wives and kids. I couldn't sympathize with him no matter what.
I couldn't take sides with the European colonists either. Though they brought good things in the village, they brought law and order, I hated the fact that they thought their God was the greatest. Trying to undermine any religion is always wrong. Every religion has its good and bad points, what you can do is point out the bad points or the bad interpretations of it. Sorry, but I am against statements like, `There is no God except our God'. I believe God is one, whether he is in the form of Christ or Allah or Krishna, everyone is the same, there are just different names given by humans. I don't want this to turn into a religious discussion, so I'll stop.
All I can say is I loved this book. Read it if you want to live and experience a culture very different from your own. `Things fall apart' is distinctively African.