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Things Fall Apart Study Guide & Plot Synopsis

This Study Guide consists of approximately 95 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Things Fall Apart.
This section contains 1,463 words
(approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page)
Purchase our Things Fall Apart Study Guide

Things Fall Apart Summary & Study Guide Description

Things Fall Apart Summary & Study Guide includes comprehensive information and analysis to help you understand the book. This study guide contains the following sections:

This detailed literature summary also contains For Further Study and a Free Quiz on Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.

Things Fall Apart Plot Summary

Preview of Things Fall Apart Summary:

Part I-Okonkwo's Rise to Fame

Achebe's Things Fall Apart describes the tragic demise of an Ibo man named Okonkwo. Initially, Okonkwo rises from humble origins to become a powerful leader in Umuofia, a rural village in southeastern Nigeria. As Okonkwo climbs the ladder to success, however, it becomes apparent that his strengths are also his weaknesses: his self-confidence becomes pride, his manliness develops into authoritarianism, and his physical strength eventually turns into uncontrolled rage. In a broader sense, Achebe sets this story about Okonkwo at the end of the nineteenth century, when Europeans first began colonizing this region of Nigeria on a large scale. By so doing, Achebe establishes a parallel between Okonkwo's personal tragedy and colonialism's tragic destruction of native African cultures.

The first section of the novel describes Okonkwo's rise to a position of power. Determined to overcome the unmanly and unsuccessful example of his father, Unoka, Okonkwo develops a strength and...
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This section contains 1,463 words
(approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page)
Purchase our Things Fall Apart Study Guide
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Things Fall Apart from BookRags and Gale's For Students Series. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.
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