Things Fall Apart by Achebe Chinua

	Lone Star College-Kingwood Assignment Guide
	First published:  1958  Time of Plot: 1880's  Locale: Ibo tribal village of Umuofia in what is modern day Nigeria  Keywords:  Achebe, Things Fall Apart, Igbo(Ibo), Nigeria, Imperialism, Colonialism, African culture, African rituals, African nationalism

GETTING STARTED WRITING A CRITICAL PAPER Writing for your ENGL1302 class will require a little background work.  Be willing to spend time getting to know the author and his works - and his village.  You will enjoy the reading and writing so much more.  After your background reading consider a theme or subject you want to pursue.  Suggestions are included below, but you may think of soething yourself.  Do a quick search and make sure you will be able to support your topic.

Librarian talk about Getting Started! Selecting what you want to write about is the most important thing you will do. Do a little background reading in reference books of criticisms professionals have written about Things Fall Apart. Consider keywords that will help you find the information you need. These can be names of people, events, or broader identifying terms. Use these keywords for locating information in the library catalog, electronic databases, and on the internet. More about Choosing Keywords (30 sec.)

Colonialism	Children in the Ibo culture	Contrast of religious beliefs
Characterization	Missionaries in Africa	Symbolism of names
Conflicting cultural mores	Comparison with Burrough's Tarzan of the Apes	Inability to adapt to change
Meaning of the title	The mask as a symbol	Use of the English language in African writing
Women in the Ibo culture	Comparison with Conrad's Heart of Darkness	Lessons learned during exile

About Achebe

Chinua Achebe was born on November 16, 1930 in Ogidi, an Igbo village near the Niger River in a Nigeria under British rule. His parents were devout Christians, and his father worked as a teacher of the Church Missionary Society. As a child Mr. Achebe was taught to look down on his fellow tribe members who practiced the traditional faith. Nonetheless, he was fascinated with the customs and traditions of his non-Christian neighbors and went to their ceremonies and festivals despite the fact his parents forbid him to do so. Achebe attended a government-run secondary school where he learned to love and appreciate British literature. He enjoyed the authors such as Joseph Conrad and their tales of Africa but came to realize "that these writers had pulled a fast one on me! I was not on Marlowe’s boat steaming up the Congo in Heart of Darkness. I was one of those strange beings jumping up and down on the river bank, making horrid faces." He decided that he could write a more realistic portrayal of his culture and began by writing articles for his college campus newspaper.  Then in 1958 he published his first novel, Things Fall Apart.  He had gone to work for the Nigerian Broadcasting company in 1953 and rose to the position of director of the Voice of Nigeria by 1961.  That same year he married and settled down to a comfortable life in a suburb of the capital city of Lagos.  This all came to an end  when a coup by Igbo army officers was met with a countercoup of  predominately Muslim officers.  There ensued one of the worst massacres ever on the African continent, with as many as 30,000 Igbo tribesmen murdered.  Achebe fled to the Igbo region of Nigeria, which later declared itself an independent country, the Republic of Biafra.  The new country suffered much misery, but he supported the new republic, using his energies to begin a new publishing firm and to seek aid for the children in Biafra.  When Biafra lost the fight for independence, Achebe worked as a research fellow at the University of Nigeria.  He took an active interest in the publishing industry in Africa, helped promote the careers of young African writers, and divided his time between teaching posts in Nigeria and the United States.  Since 1991 Mr. Achebe has taught at Bard College in Annandale, New York. Take 5 minutes to watch the video about Nigeria's most important author, Chinua Achebe, and get a feeling for the Igbo region of Nigera where the story is set.

THE SECOND COMING
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

~ Yeats

BOOKS CONTAINING CRITICISMS

JSTOR Arts & Sciences Search for scholarly journal articles in literature, economics, history, social sciences, science and mathematics. Use the advanced search page for the best search results, and put keywords in separate search boxes. Limit your search to Articles and select Language and Literature from the disciplines list for more focused results. 

ProjectMuse Begin your search by entering the title of the novel in the search box in quotation marks.  Use the limiters on the left side of the screen to focus your search to Journals, full access (complete articles), or research areas. You can Modify a search to add keywords from your thesis - click on the + mark to add search boxes.  This database is also entirely scholarly, so all articles will be of the appropriate academic level for your research.

Literature Resource Center  Includes articles from Contemporary Literature Criticism, Dictionary of Literary Biography, and Twayne's Masterworks books, as well as some full text journal articles. A good database to begin your research, locate major themes or topics to develop your thesis. Find articles, work overviews, and critical essays from this electronic database from Gale.

Bloom's Literary Database Online  |  This database is a collection of many analytical essays discussing literature.  These essays, originally published in print form, are accessible now for research online. Find information about Things Fall Apart, or read about the life of Chinua Achebe and his body of work. 

 

• African Authors - Chinua Achebe
     Links, essay questions, and an interview with Achebe, from Central Oregon Community College.
• Chinua Achebe
      Comprehensive site from Brown University.   
• Things Fall Apart Oregon Community College professor's study guide to this book. Good information.
• Enjoy the pictures of the Igbo village by G.I. Jones
• Achebe Lesson Plans - this plan for instructors can be very helpful for those studying this novel.

   

Citing Sources Using MLA Style | Lone Star College-Kingwood Library guide. Examples of both paper and electronic citations.

Avoiding Plagiarism  |   Excellent information and guide on how to avoid plagiarism from the Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University.

The Learning Center   |   Check the TLC hours for in-house tutoring.

Written by: Bettye Sutton. 6/2002. Revised 7/2012 B. Bradley.

Ask Us
Reference: 281.312.1693 Circulation: 281.312.1691	Text-A-Librarian 281.973.4792      Kingwood.LRC-Ref@LoneStar.edu

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