Introduction - Religion

The personal history of an author can have a significant influence on the way meaning is constructed in his/her writing. 

Personal history of an author can significantly influence the novel "Things Fall Apart" on how the plot and the meaning is constructed, because as the writer can express his/her personal beliefs or understanding of certain situation throughout the passage and the writing style might vary based on the author's ideology or background information they have.

It is almost impossible to not put the personal history of an author in the passage of his/her, because as the novel is one product of the author based on his/her imagination, which requires the person's thoughts. For example, in "Things Fall Apart" written by Chinua Achebe, Achebe have expressed how the British have colonized Nigeria in the 1900s. If Achebe was not Nigerian, he might not have a thought about the colonialism of British power, and he couldn't be expressing the history and culture of Igbo society in depth at the beginning of the novel. Also, as he is a Nigerian, he knows the pain of the country getting colonized by other powers, which further makes him deliver what he was thinking about the world. 

TFA Okonkwo Character Analysis

- What is the significance of Okonkwo’s character? What does he represent or is symbolic of? 
Okonkwo's characteristic is reaching for the achievement of prestige. As he is working hard for prestige and honor of himself, he hates laziness of his father, as well as his first son, Nwoye. I personally think Okonkwo is symbolic of patriarchal personality.


- What is the purpose of Okonkwo’s character within the text? 
As Okonkwo is the main character of the novel, he is the main reason why the conflict occurs in the story. For example, while Okonkwo was mad at his family about his banana tree got killed(even though it wasn't dead; his second wife just took some of the leaves to cover foods) and he was beating his own wife and even try to shoot her with a gun as he got too aggressive, if Okonkwo's characteristic was not aggressive and hardly search for honour, the conflict might not have been made, and definitely the story will not be interesting if there is no conflict. 
What I am trying to say is the character and his(or her) characteristic differs hows the situation goes in the whole story as different people react in the different ways, as the real world works in the same way.  


- How does Okonkwo’s character contribute to big ideas?
As Okonkwo's character looks for his honor and prestige, he does anything if that keeps his honor high up. When people in his village decides something and it is personally bad for Okonkwo, he doesn't show his emotion and keeps on doing his work as it is the type of being "manly" as his personality. 

3 important moments in TFA

I think the most important plot of TFA is following: 1)Okonkwo accidentally kills Ikemefuna, 2)Okonkwo gets vanished from the village, and 3)Okonkwo commits suicide.

1) Okonkwo accidentally kills Ikemefuna
I think this is the first "crisis" of the whole story that Okonkwo accidentally kills Ikemefuna, and because of that, Okonkwo gets vanished from the village, and that is the beginning step for climax of this novel.

2) Okonkwo gets vanished from the village
This could be a small climax and another crisis at the same time, as Okonkwo gets vanished from the village because of 1), and because of his vanishment and while he was out of the village, the village gets colonized by the British power. This novel's protagonist is Okonkwo, therefore the emotion shift on him gives the most important scene of the whole story.

3) Okonkwo commits suicide
This could be the biggest climax and the conclusion of the story because as Okonkwo's emotional shift in the final stage of the novel gets very aggressive on the change of the culture in his village while he was gone, and it took Okonkwo to kill himself at the end of the novel.

Why would Achebe choose to set his novel prior to and during the arrival of the colonial administration as opposed to during the context of composition?

Why would Achebe choose to set his novel prior to and during the arrival of the colonial administration as opposed to during the context of composition? 

I think Achebe wanted to show the cultural shift in his country by the colonial administration during that time period. Which could make him very distressed while writing, because I personally think when you are talking about your country’s history and culture and your country have been colonized once by another certain country, it is painful to talk about it as it is grey part of your own nation. I have the similar opinion, as I am Korean and Korea was colonized by Japan during WW2, I personally don’t want to talk about that time period because us Koreans got numerous violence by the Japanese government. However, I want to correct some of the assumptions that might have been made from foreigners who don’t specifically know about history of Korea, as I am Korean who supposed to know the “actual’ history of Korea, and correct other people if they know it in different ways- There are certain cultural misunderstandings such as Koreans can barely understand Japanese language as they are neighbouring countries and Korea have been colonised by them, but it is not true, as Korean and Japanese language is totally different, non of the grammar, alphabet, and structure of the language are the same. 

I felt like Achebe wanted to show similar ideas in Things Fall Apart. As many people don’t specifically know what culture or history of Nigeria, and from that people have wrong/untrue assumptions or stereotypes based on that. Chinua Achebe almost used half of the novel to express the atmosphere of the Nigerian tribe, to fully deliver the actual image of the Nigerian tribes who are not commonly accessible for other people who don’t relate closely.