Achebe's Things Fall Apart is a
critique of the imperialistic colonization of Africa. Throughout the novel, the western
world is portrayed as arrogant, self-serving, and ethnocentric. The imperialists treat
Africa and her inhabitants as items to be conquered and commandeered for their own uses
and abuses.
Like many great works of the western world,
however, Things Fall Apart is a story in the tradition of Greek
tragedy and the main character, Okonkwo, is most certainly a tragic hero. His great
weakness—that others will see or perceive weakness of any kind in him—drives him to make
rash decisions in order please the imperialists. The great irony, however, is that in
doing so he alienates himself from his own people and is never truly respected by the
imperialists.
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