Theme of Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a novel set in Nigeria at the time that it was first being colonized by Europeans. The novel is centered on the character Okonkwo, who was at the beginning of the novel a great and respected man in his village, Umuofia. Okonkwo was a rich man with three wives and several children who held an important leader position in the village. The main focus of the book is …

…white men, "That man was one of the greatest men in Umuofia. You drove him to kill himself..."(191). While some Ibo converted and began to follow the practices of the Christians, Okonkwo chose to end his own life, committing a sin against the Earth according to his own beliefs, rather than conform to what was in his eyes the abomination of the Christian church, and in doing so failed in his mission to prevent change.