Sunday, April 12, 2020

In every novel throughout the history, there are s Essays

In every novel throughout the history, there are some desires that characters wanted to reach. In one hand, many were looking for new lands to extend their wealth and be richness, while some of them explore and spread cultural and religious beliefs in an attempt to gain support. On the other hand, some people just want to prove that they are strong and have more power and some of them are just weak and don't have the right to speak and defend themselves. But it's likely that there will be a negative and positive affect to the society causing many lives to be changed forever. "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe is a fabulous example of how it is to invade new ideas and concepts to a strict society that have been isolated for years to create a unique lifestyle. The novel set in Niger, one of the most African countries that believed in tradition and culture. In contrast, they hate changes and they are firm about obeying to their thoughts. There are various struggles in "Things Fall Apa rt" between gender, identity, power, occupation and class because of the way in which they are taught to treat each other. "Things fall apart" is about a man named Okonkwo, a strong, powerful and fearless man. Okonkwo is scared of being a failure, weak, emotional, lonely, poor, and more than that to be just like his father, a person everybody made fun of him, which is scarier than death and loosing his life. He grew up to be a powerless wrestler and a hard working farmer, he did what he wanted and became noticeable, rich and famous in his town. Chinua Achebe represented a bold and masculine man who is loyal and confident leader. The setting of the novel is in Nigeria in the 19th century. People in this country speak Igbo, a language that has several dialects. They are unique in different aspects; they work as farmers, craftsmen and traders. The most important harvest is yams. Furthermore, people used yams in every traditional celebration and offer their kola nuts to say thank you for their god. As its mention in the novel, music and parties are pretty daily routine for the Igbo, they use it to express themselves, have fun and spread happy smiles among each other. However, European came to Nigeria and change a lot of things, and the first thing was spreading Christianity all over people there. When the white men arrived there they build their own court and set up roles for the Igbo to follow. The way white people treated Nigerian was unfair, they used to disputes in favor of the highest bidder and isn't above secretly ambushing respected clansmen who come to court to have a civilized discuss. During the novel Chinua Achebe gave a big amount of space in introducing the role of woman in the novel. The ongoing gender conflict in every novel is completely different than "Things Fall Apart"; it is a prominent and important theme presenting the clash between men and woman of the African Igbo society. "Okonkwo ruled his household with a heavy hand. His wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper" (chapter 2) , woman treated miserably, they received little or no respect and were harshly abused, and there responsibility was to satisfy the needs of their men. For example, the novel show that woman role is to have children, cook, clean and farm. One of the traditional things done by Igbo is when a man wants to marry a woman he must pay a price to her relatives. Each day, the wives have to prepare different kind of dishes and they should obey to their husbands even if it was against their well for whatever reason. They are weak and could not question o r speak at loud. Achebe clearly describes these examples as to show how much woman was criticized in the Igbo society. It may appear that it is all right, and there is nothing looks like a problem in the way Igbo treating their wives, but there is more than what you think. One of the main functions of woman in Things Fall