Things Fall Apart Themes

The novel I have read, “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe talks about the changes which took place in an old and firmly established society and structure under the impact of new, different and much more advance ideas from the outside world. In this book, we could find many themes that are relevant in our daily life.

After reading the novel, I suggest that the main theme of this novel is the theme of change. When the white men came into the Ibo tribe’s life, we could see they bought in new ideas into Umofia, and thus they started to change the village in many aspects such as religion, human laws, in political, economic and the social structure. At first when they brought in new believes and religion with them, only a hand full of the Ibo tribes men such as the slaves, the people with no title (like twins, people born out of wet log and other kinds of unfortunate people) and the younger generation were attracted to their religion, and so, started to follow the white men’s faith. Then the white men set up new jobs and position in Umofia, causing the change of the political and social structure of the village. There are several reasons for why the first of the Ibo people start accepting the white men’s religion and ways of doing things, but I believe the main reason is they wanted to have a better life, so they followed the white men with fully hope they will be able to improve their lifestyle . As for the younger generation, like Nyowe, who could not understand the reason of action by their own culture; seek to find new beliefs which they are able to accept and understand. We can see this from chapter sixteen where the white men arrived at Mbanta and started preaching and singing hymns, most of the villagers may have scoffed, but there were a handful that were attracted to it, and this started to change the mind set of many Ibo people. Even Onkonko’s eldest son, Nyowe, was attracted by these people and their teaching. Therefore, I believe the theme of change is a...