- Published: November 14, 2021
- Updated: November 14, 2021
- University / College: University of Oregon
- Language: English
- Downloads: 4
I predict that Things Fall Apart is going to be about the white men that live in Great Britain taking over the native village of Umuofia with imperialism and colonialism.
Things Fall Apart is a historical fiction novel that was originally written by Chinua Achebe and was published by the First Anchor Books in 1959. The most recent edition was published by the Penguin Group in 2017. The main character’s name is Okonkwo and he is a warrior and the leader of the community. Okonkwo also worries about his masculinity and he also careful to show no weakness when he does anything. He came from a family that was poor and he grew up with a dad who was heavily in debt.
Okonkwos fathers name was Unoka and Okonkwo did not want to be like him. Unoka used to be one of the best flute players and love the beauty of the sunrise. Later in his life, he started to borrow money from people but he decided to never pay the money back. Unoka even died with these debts still in place. Even after all of these problems, Okonkwo still has two farms of yams, married three wives, and raised his own children. He is also the best wrestler of his nine villages because he defeated Amalinze, the greatest wrestler who was unbeaten for seven years.
The white men of Great Britain would try to take over Okonkwo and the village of Umuofia with imperialism and colonialism. According to the Guided Outline, it said Imperialism involves the claiming and exploiting of territories outside of ones own natural boundaries for a variety of motives (Paragraph 2). In my own words, imperialism is taking foreign territories and taking advantage of them for your own benefits. I think that the white men are going to take over Umuofia for their own benefits such as building their own houses while tearing down the natives houses.
The Guided Outline also talked about colonialism, Colonialism involves settling of those territories and transformation the Victorian would have said reformation – of the social structure, culture, government, and economy of the people found there (Paragraph 2). In my own words, colonialism is the act of migrating to new territories and changing them into British customs. The white men are going to change all of the native customs into British customs. Edward Tylor and Benjamin Kidd were writing about how the natives were primitive savages without a good education and without the right kind of moral standards. They both shared their own thoughts on this topic but they all surrounded the topic of natives being savages.
In 1899, Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem called the White Mans Burden. The poem was describing the native people and what duties the white men had to do to help the natives. This poem is stating the different burdens that the white men have to deal with when they are dealing with the natives. The whites will have to deal with the natives if they want to have imperialism. In the poem, Kipling was saying to serve your captives need (4). This meant that the whites were working to help the natives with their jobs. The whites most likely didnt want this but it had to happen to make the natives somewhat happy.
Though, Kipling was also writing about how the natives were different than the whites. In the poem, Kipling described the native people as half-devil and half-human (8). Kipling was describing in a racist way how he thought that the natives were. People thought that the natives werent like the whites just because of their skin color and how they had a different life style. This wasnt true at all, just because people dont look or act like you doesnt mean that they are not human.
I predict that Things Fall Apart is going to be about the white men of Great Britain taking over the village of Umuofia with imperialism and colonialism because the sources were all talking about how the white men disliked the natives because they were savages.