Things Fall Apart is an absolute achievement of literature. I picked up this book after watching Crash Course Literature with John Green, and was not disappointed with what I read.
It is short and snappy and unapologetically african. It is a deep dive into the tribal culture in which Achebe was born and an unabashed and truthful examination of it.
Things Fall Apart follows the life and times of Okonkwo, as he rises through the ranks of the tribe, originally as a boxer, but becomes a wealthy farmer and an important figure in the tribe. We journey with Okonkwo as he loses a son, gets kicked out of the tribe, and eventually loses his life.
For me the brilliance in this book lies in it’s unapologetic africanism. Achebe is not scared to have his main character be unlikeable to a modern audience: Okonkwo bashes his wives, believes his sons are too feminine, wishes his daughter was born a man, and is a general warmonger. Despite this, the reader lives for these tiny and fleeting moments in which Okonkwo shows heart: he is proud of his son working hard in the field, he is excited by the fact his daughters have grown into attractive young women (dicey?). Achebe achieves considerable empathy in the reader with extremly limited recources.
Achebe covers a handful of important themes in a short time: the value of fatherhood, the value of traditional and culture and religion, a smattering of colonialist values and their effect, but for me what this book reeks of is a man who is incapable of growing and changing with the times. Okonkwo simply cannot fathom and understand that times in the tribe are changing with the introduction of christian missionaries into Nigeria. In every sense Okonkwo not only represents the tribe, but is a personification of that. He cannot deal with the change so much that he commits a tribal feux pas.
It is my hope in the future that Hollywood will commit to telling african stories like this in the future. We don’t want the Marvel slop which paints every african as a banner for good. Movies can be in-depth character studies, and by painting what I’d say is a ‘real’ african story, you can only strengthen racial ties in America. Big studios are scared of painting minorities as complex people, there are great examples (Moonlight), and I hope I get to see Things Fall Apart at the theatre soon.