Themes in Things Fall Apart Essay

Themes in Things Fall Apart


Themes that are placed in a book have a way of making that book interesting. It makes it stand out and if there is more then one theme and those themes intertwine throughout the book it makes the book appealing to the reader. This also makes the reader want to keep reading, such as in the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Throughout this book there were a few themes discussed. Those are the specific elements that made the book come together as its own and give it meaning to its audience. Each theme is different giving its own meaning, but when they come together and relate it has a whole new meaning.
In this book particularly, there was two themes that stood out to me. One of which being Gender, I.e. Man vs. Woman issues. Another being Family and Tradition. Within the first theme its not that women are not as good as men, women can be greater or just as great as men and just because of their gender shouldn’t be held back from certain things. Also with the second theme family traditions can be broken if you don’t agree with that tradition or belief or you think what your family’s old customs are correct in your views.
The first theme, which was Gender is represented in many ways. Most of the times when it was discussed it was in a sexist way. In some cases it was that woman weren’t good enough for things that men can do. For example, Okonkwo tells his daughter that she cannot do something because it is a boy’s job. “ ‘Yes’. And after a pause [Ezinma] said: ‘Can I bring your chair for you?’ ‘No, that is a boy’s job’ [said Okonkwo]” (44). In other cases woman could no do things because they weren’t strong enough or because that was not the “right thing to do”. Also in the Ibo society, there were separation in crimes. It depended on how the crime was committed to be called either a “woman’s crime” or a “man’s crime”. To be a “woman’s crime”, that means that it was committed by accident. To be a “man’s crime”, it means that...