Achebe's first three novels, Things Fall Apart, No Longer at Ease and Arrow of God have been published as a trilogy. His last novel to date (and surely, now, there must come a book about the recent Nigerian/Biafran conflict) is Man of the People. Superficially, however, the novels fall into two camps. Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God are "traditional" novels in that they are situated firmly in the past, in the traditional Ibo culture and way of life. No Longer at Ease and Man of the People are present-day situation novels, dealing as they do with educated young men versus corrupt politicians. The differences are superficial, however, because the main theme as it seems to me, the tragedy of the man who can't or won't adapt, is implicit in all the novels. And it is in the deeper meanings of the novels that I would suggest that Achebe is not dealing with parochial trivia. "This no be them country" may be geographically and ethnically true for non-West Africans, but the problems and issues that Chinua Achebe raises are relevant to most peoples and cultures.
Things Fall Apart, Achebe's first novel, has probably been paid the most critical attention of the four, not only because of its position in the brief history of the Nigerian novel, but also, because it gave for the first time in English, in a strong, confident, subtle prose, a picture of an alien society that most people outside West Africa had never heard about or been interested in. The British may have 'occupied' Nigeria for 100 years, but they knew little or nothing of the indigenous culture they imposed their own civilization upon. At first glance then, Things Fall Apart is an historical novel. It gives us a vivid picture of an Ibo society that was dying when Achebe wrote about it, and that recent events have done little to improve. Okonkwo, "one of the greatest men of his time" in the village of Umuofia destroys himself finally because he cannot unbend himself and his traditional ways in the face of change, represented by the white man and his new religion. He kills the white man's messenger. (pp. 205-06)
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