Things Fall Apart is not necessarily a novel about globalization, but the implications of a changing world -- and that includes issues related to globalization along with the fading of colonialism -- are an important part of this novel. On the surface this novel is the telling of a nationalistic-themed tale about the tragic circumstances surrounding the initial respect that Okonkwo had from the Igbo culture, along with his demise, which is the tragic fall of a hero.
Richard Begam -- History and Tragedy in Things Fall Apart
In his scholarly piece in the journal Contemporary Literary Criticism, Begam discusses culture in the context of the postcolonial dynamics four years after the Nigerian independence, by quoting the author Achebe from four years after the independence movement had succeeded. "African people did not hear of culture for the first time from Europeans," Achebe explained; "…their societies were not mindless but frequently had a philosophy of great depth and value and beauty" (Begam, 1997, p. 2). Moreover, Achebe is quoted as saying, African people "…had poetry, and, above all, they had dignity" (Begam, p. 2).
So, given the author's strong statements about the West's misreading of African culture and nationalist history, can a reader expect to experience Achebe's provincialism playing out through the characters, the theme and the setting? Begam suggests not; he asserts that Things Fall Apart is really only concerned with "fashioning tragedy" and writing history, and that along the way Begam believes that the novel "…offers us a variety of responses to tragedy" and in the process Things Fall Apart weaves those responses through the concept of colonialism.
Establishing Okonkwo as a great man is done at the outset of the novel, which Begam notes resulted from the fact that he brought great honor to his village. Okonkwo was a great wrestler and warrior, renowned for "…having brought home from battle five human heads; and on important public occasions, he drinks his palm wine from the skull of the first warrior he killed" (Begam, 2).
But by page 3 Begam is ready to paint a picture of Okonkwo that is not so perfect and brave. After all, according to Aristotelian history, any hero also has flaws, and certainly Okonkwo has his flaws: to wit, "…whenever he was angry and could not get his words out quickly enough, he would use his fists" (Achebe, p. 8). He used more than his fists; on page 188 Achebe brings the hated colonial dynamic into the book for Okonkwo to respond to, as though the author of this book had to make a point about the way in which native peoples drove the colonists out.
In the 24th chapter a messenger is sent to the village by colonial authorities, and the message is that Okonkwo is supposed to disband a tribal meeting. "The white man whose power you know too well has ordered this meeting to stop," said the messenger (Achebe, 188). "In a flash Okonkwo drew his machete. The messenger crouched to an avoid the blow. It was useless. Okonkwo's machete descended twice and the man's head lay beside his uniformed body" (Achebe, 188). Okonkwo wiped the machete in the sand and walked away from the head lying on the ground. In this way, according to Begam, Okonkwo has "…symbolically dissolved his connection with his people, wiping away the blood bond that has joined them" (p. 3). Begam makes that point because the messenger sent and killed was not a European; he was a fellow Igbo.
Possibilities and Pitfalls of Ethnographic Readings -- Carey Snyder
Carey Snyder writes about the 25th and final chapter in the novel -- in which Okonkwo hangs himself -- commenting that the final chapter represents "a dramatic shift of perspective" (Snyder, 2008, p. 1). That perspective is dramatically different from the rest of the novel because the passing of Okonkwo is "unceremoniously condensed into a brief anecdote," which is bizarre because the protagonist in this story has been the subject (and the central subject at that) of the previous twenty-four chapters. The District Commissioner demands that the men standing around in the village (where the messenger was killed) take him to Okonkwo (or be shot); and without telling the Commissioner that Okonkwo is dead, and is hanging from a tree, they arrive at the grim scene.
This is the place in the story at which Snyder makes a good point about colonialism, and in particular colonialism in
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