di Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
This novel is written by one of the most famous Nigerian Novelist Chinua Achebe in 1958. It describes the story of a traditional big man and that of this downfall. The story is set in the Nigerian Ibo society of the 1890s in Umuofia, a
group of nine Ibo villages. Okonkwo , the protagonist, is a great man who, thanks to his own efforts has become one of the village's most admired inhabitants and 'lord of the clan. He is a rich farmer and has three wives. As he regards emotions as a sign of weakness, he always represses his feelings. At the funeral of Ezeudo, the most senior elder, Okonkwo's old gun
accidentally explodes killing Ezeudo's young son, Okonkwo is thus forced into exile in Mbanta, his mother's native land and village. While away, white men arrive and half of the people of the tribe are massacred in an act of revenge, Nwoye, Okonkwo's son, becomes a convert to the white men's religion. The power of the traditional gods is challenged by Christianity. After Seven years Okonkwo returns to Umuofia. Everything has changed. Some umuofians have become Christians and the servants of the colonial rulers. Okonkwo cannot accept this, he is determined to rebel in order to keep the Ibo
traditions alive. With a group of friends he burns down the mission church of the Christians and later decapitates the white messenger who came to the palace. They very moment he realizes that his friends will not fight against the white men, he decides to commit suicide and hangs himself.
