Hello everyone, we are here again with the latest weekly contest by @queercoin with the prompt:
Books - What is your favorite book? Why do you like it?
As an educationist, have read so many books that I even find it pretty difficult picking out one amongst the lot as my most favourite. But for the purpose of this discourse I have to narrow it down to one. And there we go: "Things Fall Apart"! Oh, yes. That novel is really a classic by all standards.
Let me give a breakdown of its publication details
Author: Chinua Achebe
Country: Nigeria
Language: English
Publisher: William Heinemann Ltd.
Publication date: 1958
Pages: 209
"Things Fall Apart" is the first novel written by the renounced Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe and was first published in 1958. It portrays and highlights the precolonial life in the Igbo speaking South Eastern part of Nigeria and the advent of the Europeans in the later part of the 19th century.
Woven around the protagonist, Okonkwo who is a local wrestler from the village of Umuofia. Okonkwo is described as a young man who yearns to escape his poverty strike background by sheer hardwork and will power. Unoka who was the father of Okonkwo was portrayed as a weakling and a drunk who does nothing other than singing songs and entertaining the people without more. Okonkwo as a young man loathes this 'womanlike' behaviour and resolved on his own to be a hardworking man with a large yambarn, aposite of the father's lifestyle.
The culture of the Igbos were also well highlighted in the book such as the communal living, egalitarian system and republican in nature.
Okonkwo grew into prominence when he went to war with the people of Umuofia and came back with a human skull. That shows the warrior in him. Elders started according him some level of respect too. His yam barn also started increasing and he even crowned it all by marrying two wives: a sign of wealth and industry; for it is only a wealthy man can maintain two wives.
The later part of the novel depicts the advent of colonialism and their foreign religion, that is, Christianity into Okonkwo's house, Umuofia and Igboland as a whole and the attitude of the people of Umuofia in resisting it. Okonkwo, as expected pioneered it. He even had to kill a white and when he realised that his people of Umuofia, who had changed with time, will not be going to war afterall, had to commit suicide so as not to be apprehended by the whites.
Why do you like it?
What do I like about "Things Fall Apart"? Well, a lot of things. To begin with, the novel is replete with so many idiomatic expressions which the renounced author used to garnish its content and to drive home his message. The simplicity of words and its catchy plots made the book so endearing to me. I assure you that once you pick it up to read, you will not even like to drop it without making a conscious effort to spread it to the end. It has a catchy and breathe taking storyline indeed and that is the hallmark of a classic
This is my participation in the QC Community Contest. You can join the contest via this link:
@queercoin/qc-community-weekly-contest-29