Bright Summaries - Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (Book Analysis): Detailed Summary, Analysis and Reading Guide

• Born in Ogidi (Nigeria) in 1930.
• Died in Boston in 2013.
• Literary awards:
  • St. Louis Literary Award, 1999
  • Man Booker International Prize, 2007
  • Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, 2011
• Notable works:
  • Things Fall Apart (1958), novel
  • No Longer at Ease (1960), novel
  • Arrow of God (1964), novel
  • Home and Exile (2000), essays

Chinua Achebe was born in Ogidi, Nigeria, one of the first towns in the country to be visited by Anglican missionaries. His parents had converted to the Church Mission Society, a Protestant denomination, but continued to respect their ancestors traditions.

Achebes gift for reading and writing in English earned him entry to the prestigious Government College in Umuhaia, which was modelled on English public schools and funded by the colonial administration, and had been set up to educate Nigerias future elite. It was a very academically demanding school, and students were only allowed to talk to each other in English, the language of their colonisers.

In 1948, he was awarded a bursary to study medicine at University College in Ibadan, but during his time there he developed an interest in literature and became increasingly critical of the ways Africa and its people were depicted in European fiction. After reading Mister Johnson by Joyce Cary, in which all the Nigerian characters were portrayed as either savages or buffoons, Achebe was so disgusted that he decided to abandon his medical studies and become a writer in order to prevent such glaring cultural ignorance and change peoples perceptions of Africa.

After graduating, he began writing his first novel, which was a major challenge because very few African works of fiction had previously been published in English. However, on a trip to London he met the writer Gilbert Phelps, who introduced him to his agent in 1958. The agent sent Achebes manuscript to numerous publishing houses, and Heinemann decided to take a chance on it. The novel, Things Fall Apart , met with popular and critical enthusiasm in England, but the reception in Nigeria was more mixed. However, years later the Nobel Prize-winning Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka described it as the first English-language novel to describe Africa from a truly African perspective.

Achebe has been described as the father of African literature, not just because of his prolific literary career (he was the author of over 20 books, comprising novels, essays, short stories and poetry collections), but also because of his commitment to getting other African writers published. This, coupled with an impressive academic career that saw him teach in both African and American universities, enabled him to transform African literature and the reputation of its writers.

Achebe died in Boston in 2013, but was buried in his native town of Ogidi. Although he never won the Nobel Prize in Literature, he is widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of the 20 th century, and the over 30 honorary doctorates and countless prestigious literary awards he has received attest to the esteem in which he is held.

Did you know?

Achebe was highly critical of classic authors such as Joseph Conrad. In his essay An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness , he described the Polish-British writer as a thoroughgoing racist due to his dehumanisation of Africans and his depiction of Africa as a vast, dangerous battlefield devoid of humanity.

• Genre: novel
• Reference edition: Achebe, C. (2001) Things Fall Apart . London: Penguin.
• st edition: 1958
• Themes: masculinity and femininity, tradition versus modernity, pride, disobedience

Things Fall Apart was Chinua Achebes first successful work, and is now considered to be a classic of African literature. Since it was first published in 1958, it has sold over eight million copies and been translated into more than 50 languages, making Achebe the most-translated African author of all time.

The novel tells the story of the celebrated wrestler Okonkwo, who is fighting to escape from the legacy left by his lazy, irresponsible father, and to overcome the problems resulting from the arrival of white missionaries in his town, Umuofia. His world is collapsing around him, and all he can do is struggle in vain against it, even if it costs him his life. The novel is a dazzling fusion of Western realism and Igbo oral tradition with its rituals, festivities, proverbs, tales and songs. It paved the way for a new generation of writers and profoundly altered both how Africans perceived themselves and how they were viewed by the rest of the world.