Thinking Activity "Things Fall Apart"

Thinking Activity " Things Fall Apart"

Hello Readers,

Welcome to the blog which is related with the Thinking Activity of African Literature. 

Here are some questions on Things Fall Apart. Students are requested to answer the questions in 300 words. 

1. What is the historical context of Things Fall Apart?

          Things Fall Apart is set in 1890, during the early days of colonialism in Nigeria. Achebe depicts Igbo society in transition, from its first contact with the British colonialists to the growing dominance of British rule over the indigenous people.

           His decision to write Things Fall Apart in English is an important one. Achebe wanted this novel to respond to earlier colonial accounts of Africa; his choice of language was thus political. Unlike some later African authors who chose to revitalize native languages as a form of resistance to colonial culture, Achebe wanted to achieve cultural revitalization within and through English. 

        In 1984, he founded Uwa ndi Igbo, a bilingual magazine containing a great deal of information about Igbo culture.

2. What is the significance of the title?

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a novel whose title bears the central message of the work. The very title ‘Things Fall Apart’ foreshadows the tragedy which takes place at the end of the novel. The novel depicts the tragedy of an individual as well as the tragedy of a society. The protagonist of the novel Okonkwo who was rich and respectable at the beginning of the novel meets a tragic fate at the end of the novel. Achebe portrays how an ambitious, well known, and respected African Okonkwo’s life falls apart. But when he suffers, his whole tribe also suffers. At the beginning of the novel, the Ibo society was a peaceful, organic society, but at the end of the novel it falls into pieces. Thus, the novel records not only falling apart of Okonkwo’s life but also his whole society.

3. Write a brief note on the concept of 'Chi' in Things Fall Apart?

The chi is an individual's personal god, whose merit is determined by the individual's good fortune or lack thereof. Along the lines of this interpretation, one can explain Okonkwo's tragic fate as the result of a problematic thought that occurs to Okonkwo at several points in the novel.

4. What do you think about the incident of Ikemefuna? How does it help to understand the Ibo culture in more specific ways?

Ikemefuna comes to Umuofia early in the book, as settlement for a dispute with a nearby village. Not knowing what else to do with him, Okonkwo lets Ikemefuna live with his first wife. Ikemefuna quickly becomes a well-loved member of the family. He serves as a role model for Okonkwo’s eldest son, Nwoye, and over time he also earns Okonkwo’s respect. But more important than the role he plays in Okonkwo’s family is the effect his death has on the unfolding events of the novel.

5. Write a brief note on Ibo people's belief in the world of spirits.

Traditional Igbo religion includes belief in a creator god (Chukwu or Chineke), an earth goddess (Ala), and numerous other deities and spirits as well as a belief in ancestors who protect their living descendants. Revelation of the will of the deities is sought by divination and oracles.

6. How is the difference between the father land and the mother land described in Things Fall Apart?

Description of where and when Things Fall Apart takes place. For instance, Umuofia is Okonkwo's father's home village, which makes it Okonkwo's fatherland. to another of the nine villages, Mbanta, which is Okonkwo's motherland—that is, the Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our.

7. Write a brief note on the concept of Nativism and Native identity in Things Fall Apart.

Chinua Achebe's pioneering African  Things Fall Apart presents an interesting pair of "star" characters in their chief  lucid introduction to the novel, Wright wrote of Bigger, highlighting the authenticate or uphold their nativism (used here in the sense of identity as. Languages and Identity in Postcolonial African Literature:  Nigerian author Chinua Achebe once wrote that the time and place in  Achebe's first novel, Things Fall Apart, speaks truth about Africa and  first chapter will explain a linguistic definition of language  not according to the worth of his father” father "Things Fall Apart take  Aristotle defined the tragic hero as a character who is superior and noble, one who  In the chapters ahead, the reader should note the qualities and actions that .

8. Point out the important points of Things Fall Apart which can be compared with Kanthapura by Raja Rao.

Things Fall Apart : The Struggle Between Change and Tradition

 As a story about a culture on the verge of change, Things Fall Apart deals with how the prospect and reality of change affect various characters. The tension about whether change should be privileged over tradition often involves questions of personal status.

Kanthapura is the unification of different Indian castes under a Gandhian system of social justice during the fight against British rule of India. At the beginning of the novel, Kanthapura, a rural Indian village, is divided by caste.

Thank you…..!