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Essay / Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe - 1317
Chinua Achebe chose to write his novels in English to reveal a profound response of his people to colonization and to make that response understood by people around the world. Things Fall Apart was written in English to teach people around the world about the struggles he faced and those the Nigerian people faced growing up. Many authors and critics have written about Achebe's "Things Fall Apart", adding their opinions on what he was trying to say and his decision to write in English. In the following essay, I will explain why Achebe wrote the novel Things Fall Apart in English and what messages he was trying to reveal, using reviews and secondary sources. Achebe wrote in English to teach the reader the value of Igbo culture. . According to Brucker, Achebe's English education and exposure to European societies allowed him to grasp not only the African perspective in the novel, but also the European perspective on colonial expansion, religion, race, and culture (Brucker 1). Brucker states that Achebe's decision to write Things Fall Apart in English was an important and significant choice (Brucker1). Achebe intended this novel to respond to earlier colonial narratives about Africa; his choice of language was for this reason political (Brucker 3). Many African authors chose to write in indigenous languages as a method of resistance to colonial culture; however, Achebe wanted to achieve a cultural revival within and across English (Brucker 3). Nevertheless, he succeeds in capturing the rhythm of the Igbo language and integrates Igbo vocabulary into the narrative (Brucker 3). Brucker also states that stereotypes of African culture, particularly the idea that traditional African cultures are authoritarian, amoral and...... middle of paper ...... they had poetry and, above all, they had dignity." However, Achebe does not idealize the precolonial past, because he knows that it cannot survive unchanged in a modern world (reference). Through the opinion of authors and d he writers through the use of secondary sources, Chinua Achebe's 'Things Fall Apart' has many different views and perspectives on why and how Chinua Achebe wrote 'Things Fall Apart'. in English to inform and teach people around the world about the struggles he faced and the struggles most Nigerians faced in Africa English from the perspective of Igbo culture. individuals as well as society as a whole face change. Achebe creates a masterpiece that showcases the importance of balance. He says that when this balance is lost, chaos is inevitable. and things basically fall apart.