Things Fall apart - Book Report/Review Example

The colonization by the European missionaries was eminent because at that time, Okonkwo was in exile. On the contrary, Achebe does not achieve his goal of praising the Igbo culture by just viewing how it was different from the present ways of living: rather he tries to show the Igbo culture as one that had dignity. Achebe notes, “The Igbo had a philosophy of great depth, value and beauty; that they had poetry and, above all, they had dignity” (Achebe, 1973, 8). What is pleasing to Achebe is the way in which the Igbo people at that time had achieved democracy, which is sought after in the modern world.

The Igbo culture before colonization had accepted tolerance to other cultures. In addition, there was some balance between the genders, for instance, male and female. Achebe does not only appreciate the level of change in the Igbo culture before colonization, he says that the Igbo people had a good system of morality as well as very good and wonderful poetry and art. Achebe tries to compare the Igbo culture with the modern culture by showing how they had managed to meet most standards of democracy.

The major aim of Achebe is to s how to the world how unique qualities of the Igbo culture such as its poetry, art, democratic institutions and culture as being more important that the European culture introduced after colonization. The text pushes to the side of Umofians and sees the Christian ways as being wrong to the Umofians. The District Commissioner had succeeded in persuading the Igbo people to abandon their primitive culture. In the novel, Obiereka who had chaired the party of the colonial district commissioner has been asked to bring down the corpse of Okonkwo who had hanged himself.

The colonial commissioner during that time was seen as the greatest political authority and was not to be challenged by anyone. Later, a dialogue ensues in which the powerful colonial administrator now become concerned and is asking the Igbo people to explain to him the customs and rituals that prevent them from touching the body of Okonkwo. According to the Igbo, Okonkwo was a great person in Umofia and no one can dare touch his body. The district commissioner in the final parts of the novel is perceived to be shifting away from the site of Okonkwo’s suicide and wonders whether to make Okonkwo’s suicide a chapter or a paragraph in the book he is just about to write.

The books title was to be “the pacification of the primitive tribes of the lower Niger”. Achebe thinks that this is a manifestation of the eminent defeat of the Igbo custom and beliefs. The European culture will now have to be established among the Igbo. The ending of the novel is quite satisfying. In the final parts of the novel, the commissioner goes away, taking with him about four of the soldiers with him. In the several years and efforts he had worked to bring about civilization in Africa, he had learnt some important lessons.

One lesson was that, never to attend to primitive meetings where the Igbo people were cutting down the body of a hanged man from a tree. Such meetings would ensure that the Africans have a negative attitude towards him. Further, the primitive customs of the Igbo and other Africans have been proved to be of no use. European culture according to the commissioner is the best way of living. Africans must now conform to civilization. Okonkwo whom the Umofains had