—Anonymous
“Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe is certainly an interesting book. It is fascinating to see other cultures and lands, especially because I am not to familiar with tribal Nigeria. The Igbo people, Chinua writes about, are described to crisp detail and the social dynamics of their society are illustrated perfectly. Though I enjoyed Things Fall Apart, and it is certainly a good work, to me and in my objective opinion I cannot say that I believe this work should be in the book roster over other great works. I feel like in a small list of books like the one we followed over the term there could have been plenty of other books to fill its spot. If the list consisted of 20 books, sure, Things Fall Apart BELONGS there but not with a small list like the one we had for great works in English. I believe Things Fall Apart did a good job at featuring the issues that loomed over tribal Nigeria such as (an issue known worldwide) a woman’s place in society. It was a good job, but by no means the best of what a great work can cover. There was a constant depiction of women being held at subservient levels, but no further detail or coverage outside of showing us the issue being obvious in a male dominated society. True it is not the main part of the story by any means but in a course where the topic was covered multiple times you would think we would cover a topic that does the problem justice. Great works such as “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen or Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy both feature the strife of women and their prospects. It can be argued that Harriet Ann Jacobs in Incidents in the life of a slave girl covers the female issue, but the overall message and issue in that is the horror that is slavery, life is miserable for both African males and females. While Things Fall Apart depicts a society that puts women down constantly, it shows us the issue but never ever addresses it. The work covers Nigerian tribal life phenomenally and I cannot imagine there is a work that can surpass it, but one of the book’s mission is to show oppression and I feel like there are much better works for that.
