Achebe's Upbringing

Throughout the novel “Things Fall Apart” our understanding of the context is grounded on the personal upbringing and history of author China Achebe’s demonstration of certain events, values and characters in accordance to his life experiences. This acts as a means to develop a significant catalyst in driving the reader to understand the cultural context in which the novel is written. Topic Sentence: Achebe’s Christian upbringing enabled him to bolster his style of writing including his native Igbo culture, his upbringing vastly affected his understanding of cultures and religions and in turn affected his writing style. Topic Sentence: Achebe’s appreciation of both his religion and culture allowed him to divulge into the consequences of colonialism and thus the reader was able to gain a deeper understanding of the Igbo culture’s values and beliefs in his novel. Topic Sentence: Due to Achebe’s upbringing being predominantly in English, he persevered to achieve cultural catharsis within and through the use of the English language, as well as his writing style in his novel.

Things Fall Apart gender blog post

Thesis: Throughout the novel, Achebe sets distinct boundaries between the protagonist (Okonkwo) and other characters based on their gender. This is illustrated as Okonkwo’s perspective of different genders shapes his unstable and unpredictable narrative. Topic Sentence: Okonkwo’s perspective of gender is further highlighted during the “week of peace”, in which he sinfully beats his wife; this implies the symbolic association of wife abuse likened to hyper masculinity. This develops Okonkwo’s understanding of women as powerless to both him and society. Topic Sentence: Ezinma being Okonkwo’s favourite child inherits masculine traits, similar to her father, this demonstrates Okonkwo’s appreciation of this lapse in gender adversities hoping she had been a boy. Moreover, this implies Okonkwo’s perception of males to be superior to women. Topic Sentence: Nwoye, Okonkwo’s oldest son is a stark contrast to Ezinma’s character, symbolising traits similar to Okonkwo’s father, Nwoye is demonstrated as weak and lazy, these are traits Okonkwo despises, however, Nwoye strives to please his father and mature as a masculine character. This demonstrates Okonkwo’s evaluation of the Igbo values as to what a man should be like.