Title
Things Fall Apart
Author
Chinua Achebe
Why I chose it
By reading summery about this book, I could guess that this book is about tragic story during the era of the introduction of Christianity into Africa by European missionaries. My high school and junior high school was established by missionaries so I feel some kind of affinity to the basis of this story.And I have never read African novel so it also made me want to read this book, of course.
An overview of the plot
This book is about the era of introduction of Christanity into Africa , and in this story, main character, okonkwo, is described as a severe and very manly person. He believes in god of his village and persist on his tradition. However, peoples in his village begun to believe in God from Europe , Christianity. Under such a situation, okonkwo struggled to tackle to a expansion of Christianity but ended in vein. His village was changing completely, losting tradition and culture. And finally, Okonkwo decided to kill himself.
My reaction After I finished reading this book, I noticed that many violences appeared in this story. Main character always tried to be a violent person in order to show his strength. It also included violence toward women so it is somewhat hard to read. I also noticed that this story is always focusing on strength and weakness.I thought that in Africa , they more focus on strength but in Christianity it more focus on weakness, like sin. Of course, this is culture, so I cannot say that which is good or bad easily, though, it is true that African people inspired by this point, weakness in not a shameful thing.
I enjoyed reading your book report.
返信削除I'm interested in Christianity now because I stayed in the Christian family in NZ in this summer.
I think that there are too many ambiguous things such as the justice of Christianity, but I think it important to tolerate the ambiguity.
Hisae, nice reaction to this novel! Well-written and insightful! The themes of "strength" "violence" and the spread of Christianity to areas and how it affects traditional cultures, and how it is part of colonialism are all very difficult and important to think about. My parents are Christian missionaries, so I had a lot of similar reactions as I read this book a few years ago. There are many good research topics here!
返信削除I enjoyed your book reaction.
返信削除African novel is really interesting.
I wanna read this book because I'm surprised main character decided to kill himself because of the difference of religion, which god believes.
It is a good chance to think of it for me, thanks^^