I found this very interesting.

My fascination with this book centers ofcourse around Okoknwo.(arguably my tragic hero). As the novel opens,(Things) he is presented clearly as the heroic symbol of his culture aand time.However as it progresses we see his faults beginning to betray him which eventually leads him to exile and his subsequent suicide. Okonkwo in some way represents a part of the African society,which tried in every way to keep the traditional status-quo and resist change. This sadly failed.(Okoknwo over-did it,his strengths became his ultimate weaknesses and fall).
He was in a serious regard, a prophet of sorts. In the novel he tells his son Nwoye “a live fire begets cold impotent ash..” how so true it turned out to be! This was not only true of his son but also for the majority of his society who embraced change and colonisation.! The ‘live fire’ soon begot the cold impotent ash…the once lively people and generation soon turned out to be cowards and collaborators.
There is a lot one could say about this book and Achebe. The truth is, Achebe is one of the world’s finest writer’s. I was having a chat with a bunch of friends and i was just mentioning that Achebe is a prolific, outstanding writer (which i expected to be common sense) and i went on to comment that his Novel Things Fall Apart is actually the first literary novel to come out of Africa by an African. Well, one of my ‘associates’- Obviously uninformed and clearly arrogant eked out something to the effect of ‘well if he has’nt been a New York Time’s best seller then he isnt the best..’ i looked at him sternly and thought to myself….

jb says: Thanks for that, Derrick. Sometimes our friends seem to be on a different planet.

Thanks,
Brandon

But yes, the novel is a great one, although it’s ending was kind of disappointing. But it shows history for what it is, not overly showing African’s as noble, cultured, heroes, but at the same time, making it clear that they weren’t complete savages like Conrad and others portrayed them to be. In fact, even for me, it was quite an eye-opening read, to know that African tribes too had so many customs and value systems. In the past, I had gotten only the euro-centric biased view of Africa, with Russell Peters making fun of !Xobile and mad tribals running around in ‘The Gods Must be Crazy’.

But John, I would like to know why you chose this particular passage for the excerpt. I mean so many other passages could have shown a glimpse of the crux of the book in a better way, what was your thought process and reasoning behind choosing this one?

jb says: Oh, Neil, I just loved the passage about the wedding ceremony. Such warmth and community and meaning expressed so beatifully and succinctly.