Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart - The Downfall of the Ibo Essay

hotshot of Chinua Achebes goals in Things Fall Apart is to portray Ibo culturevividly and honestly. Unlike European perspectives of the Africans much(prenominal) as ConradsHeart of night Achebes representation explains intricate customs, rituals, and lawsand develops individual characters. Things Fall Apart shows Ibo golf club to be fullyfunctioning and full of life. However, Achebe maintains his objectivity and avoidsgiving the Ibo any undue sympathy, painting some of their customs such as the authorisation abandonwork forcet of infant twins in a questionable light. plot of ground it is easy for us especially in this age of political justness and multiculturalism to place upon thewhite man all the blame for the downfall of the Ibo, Achebe does non make the situationso simple. In fact, it is the acquiescence of his comrades, not the incursion of theEuropeans, which eventually causes Okonkwo to take his own life. Thus, it is difficult toplace the Ibo and the white men in to traditional categories of good and evil, for eachexhibits positive and negative qualities. Although the Ibo certainly feature a lively,stable society before the Europeans arrived, their internal struggles contributed to theirown demise. genuine CULTUREThroughout the novel, Achebe offers detailed illustrations of the richness of Iboculture. Many episodes do not directly advance the plot, but rather serve to provideexamples of this culture. integralness of the most significant signs of the development of Iboculture is its system of laws and justice. A whole chapter describes the proceedings asegwugwu (important clansmen who dress as village ancestors) determine the verdict in awife-beating case (87). The villagers are not stupid comme il faut to believe... ...ld do if the missionaries brought militaryreinforcements. In any case, if Ibo society can be compared to a tragic hero, its irrationalbeliefs would be its tragic flaw. It was these beliefs which directly alienated member s ofsociety, such as Nwoye, Nneka, and the osu, and created a rift within the Ibo. While suchbeliefs and customs are certainly evidence of the depth of Ibo culture, their irrational al-Qaida could not withstand the white mans defiance of them, as shown by the churchssurvival in the Evil Forest. Ironically, it is these beliefs the strawman of a socialstructure, the development of a religion which not simply show the richness of Iboculture, but also lead to its downfall.Works CitedAchebe, Chinua. An physical body of Africa Racism in Conrads Heart of Darkness. An Introduction to Literature. Terry, Joseph. New York, NY Longman, 2001.