Chinua Achebe has written over twenty books-novels, short stories, essays and collections of poetry-including Things Fall Apart (1958); Arrow of God (1964); A man of the People (1966); Beware, Soul Brother and Other Poems (1971)。 Best known for his novel Things Fall Apart, African writer Chinua Achebe is also a poet and essayist who has achieved canonical status in literature。 Achebe has received many awards from academic and cultural institutions around the world。 In 1959, he won the Margaret Wong Memorial Prize for Things Fall Apart。 The following year, after the publication of its sequel, No Longer at Ease, he was awarded the Nigerian National Trophy for Literature。 His book of poetry, Christmas in Biafra, written during the Nigerian civil war, won the first Commonwealth Poetry Prize in 1972。 More than twenty universities in Great Britain, Canada, Nigeria, and the United States have awarded Achebe honorary degrees。 

Achebe has received the Honorary Fellowship of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as honorary doctorates from more than thirty colleges and universities。 He is also the recipient of Nigeria’s highest award for intellectual achievement, the Nigerian National Merit Award。 In 2007, he won the Man Booker International Prize for Fiction。论文网

Things Fall Apart is Chinua Achebe’s first work, not only is the most famous of his works but also the most important work in African English literature so far。 Since its first publication, it has sold 10 million copies in the world and has been translated into 50 languages。 Before Things Fall Apart was published, lots of people had written novels about Africa, and they largely portrayed Africans as savages who needed to be enlightened by Europeans。 Achebe broke apart this view by portraying Igbo society in a sympathetic light, which allows the reader to examine the effects of European colonialism from a different perspective。

2。 Literature Review 

Things Fall Apart tells the story of an African tribal hero and describes the real life of the Igbo people before the British invasion。 It reveals that the invasion of the British colonists destroyed all aspects of African indigenous culture。 It unfolds a true picture of African tribe life in transition to the Western world。 The tribe had a very complex social structure。 Chinua Achebe wants to change the Western people’s view about the African tribes, because the Western people usually think the African tribes are very primitive and barbaric。

Foreign scholars tend to study the symbolic significance of the protagonist Okonkwo of the novel。 As Lindfors says, “Achebe’s rich portrayal of traditional Igbo society glowed with compassion。 The customs, rituals, beliefs and institutions that regulated the lives of villagers before the arrival of the white man were sympathetically depicted and shown to be worthy of our respect” (Lindfors 23)。 M。 Keith Booker says, “if Things Fall Apart is first and foremost a story of the disintegration of traditional African societies under the impact of European colonial intrusions; it is also the personal tragedy of this single inpidual, whose life falls apart in the midst of that same process” (Booker 202)。 Polycarp Ikuenobe says, ‘‘ Okonkwo, the main character in the novel was on a sure path to elderhood because he was respected and recognized by the community for his achievements but he failed to reach ancestorhood due to his refusal to develop his personhood according to communal principles’’ (Polycarp 50 )。文献综述

The domestic scholars study Okonkwo also from different angles。 He Shan thinks that ‘Things Fall Apart has cross-cultural content in great quantities, but the author also writes a lot about the influence of the local culture on the local residents that were led by the protagonist ’’ (He 56-57)。 On the contrary, compared with the cross-cultural conflict, she thinks the influence of the local culture on the local residents is more worth thinking about。 Okonkwo is strict with himself and do lots of things for the clan, but he does not have a good ending as a cultural follower。 She analyses the tragic hero who should face lots of things。 She discusses the conflict between culture and personality。 She claims that Okonkwo’s wrong attitude towards intercultural conflict brings his tragic results。 So we can obtain cultural enlightenment from it。