Unlike Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now in which the natives are regarded as savage, in Things Fall Apart, white men are considered to be savage because of the death and destruction they left in their wake. While many contend "history is written by the victors," Things Fall Apart allows readers to understand history from the perspective of those that were forcibly conquered and thus allows the reader to understand the destructive nature of imperialism and conquest (Churchill)
Like many imperialistic countries that sought to expand their territories for political and financial gain, Kurtz seeks out to explore as much of Congo for personal gain. Kurtz asks, "What was he doing? exploring or what?," to which a response of "Oh, yes, of course,' he had discovered lots of villages, a lake, too -- he did not know exactly in what direction; it was dangerous to inquire too much -- but mostly his expeditions had been for ivory…'To speak plainly, he raided the country" (Conrad 31)
He uses this metaphor of the kite and the eagle to illustrate how everyone should try to get along with each other: "Let the kite perch and let the eagle perch too. If one says no to the other, let his wing break" (Achebe 21-22)
They are happy, but their happiness, just as their way of life, will not last forever, however, their images and memories will. Whitman uses a lovely and clearly defined form of imagery in his writings on nature, as this stanza from "Tintern Abbey" visibly shows: These beauteous forms, Through a long absence, have not been to me As is a landscape to a blind man's eye: (Wordsworth)
When Okonkwo chooses his own sense of masculinity over the child Ikemefuna, causing the child's brutal murder, the reader comes into close contact with the dichotomies of Igbo life. The novel reveals the "shifts of belief…marked by the pragmatic transference of old pieties for new, a metamorphosis demanded by the realities of a revised socio-economic hierarchy," (MacKenzie, 1996, p
¶ … Things Fall Apart repudiates imperialist and colonialist ideology almost goes without saying and is one of the primary underlying purposes and themes of the novel (Osei-Nyame, 1999, p
Colonialists project all manner of biases and prejudices onto the colonized, such as deeming the colony as being primitive and in need of saving. Things Fall Apart is therefore "a direct response to a whole canon of books written about Africa's history and culture by Europeans," (Whittaker & Msiska, 2007, p
The split between father and son represents the split at the heart of the novel between two cultures and two worldviews; neither is without its flaws and both speak to different matters of the heart and head. However, the irreconcilable differences that arise between the meeting of the two cultures and the imminent clash that leaves Okonkwo dead (from suicide) are rooted in both the personalities of those involved (Okonkwo is extremely passionate and hard-line; the British District Commissioner is cold-hearted and indifferent to the plight of the tribal community, viewing them as "primitives" in need of pacification) and the social customs that they are used to upholding (Achebe, 1996, p