Response to Second Half of Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

When I finished the last bit of this story I realized this was a pretty good story and that I could probably read it again in the future. I think Achebe is a good author and I would like to research other stories that he has written and maybe read those as well. I also got to read essays and author’s responses to this book called Things Fall Apart because I purchased the critical edition of the book. There were lots of positive responses to Achebe’s book but there were also negative responses. One section that I read after I was through reading the story was an essay called Problems of Gender and History in the Teaching of Things Fall Apart. This was about student responses to the book who have read it for class and lots of students told their teachers that this book has a lot of sexism and they think it should be taken out of the curriculum. I understand why the students find Okonkwo the main character sexist but they should think more about the time period that this story is supposed to take place in. At that time there were specific gender roles and things that females simply did not participate in. Times have definitely changed and I think all that matters is that it is different now for the better.

Also there was another essay I read that I would like to respond to, it relates a lot to the last one. This one was called Character and Society in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and it talked most about the main character, Okonkwo as well. First of all this essay points out that the author did a great job of accomplishing complex artistry in this story which I do agree with. Second, it points out that there are definitely divided opinions about the main character such as whether he was a product of the values and norms of his society or was not a product of his society. This essay also says something that is related to the gender and history essay; it says “Where his society is noted for its discrete blending of the masculine and feminine principles Okonkwo is openly contemptuous of all things feminine.” I think this is interesting because Okonkwo did have three wives and I do not remember him being that sexist but maybe I just do not remember those parts of the story. I think it was a good story and even though these issues could become a bigger problem and criticism of the book in the future, I think it is a common issue and sometimes it is what makes these stories interesting. For example, how different their society was from ours today was interesting to me and the sexism is one of the differences.