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Things Fall Apart

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Eliminating the “Single Story” in Things Fall Apart
Negative stereotypes of the African people “mainly come from western literature”(Adichie) which does not show the African people as human beings with complex lives but instead as an “incomprehensible people, fighting senseless wars, dying of poverty, unable to speak for themselves, and waiting to be saved by the kind white foreigner”(Adichie). Stories that only depict one point of view of a person or people develops a “single story” which creates misperceptions like the negative stereotypes of the African people. Adichie advocates that one must tell the story of a people from multiple perspectives to get the true story. By telling the story of the British colonization of Africa from the perspective of the colonized, which ultimately shows their complexities and similarities to Western culture, Achebe eliminates the “single story” of the African people in Things Fall Apart.
Religion embodies one of the many complexities of the human race. Societies of all kinds, including the Ibo society, use religion to help guide them through hardships and provide morals and ethics. Achebe wants to show to Western readers that the Ibo religion is not any less enlightened than their Christian beliefs by showing the similarities to Christian religion, therefore refuting the “single story” of the African people. Similarly to how Christians consult their priests in Christianity, the Ibo people consult their ancestors called the egwugwu for spiritual guidance for nearly every decision, depicting how the Ibo people are no exception to this practice. The Ibo society also practices, “keeping wooden symbols of their personal god and of their ancestral spirits”(14), not unlike the Christian wooden cross. In the conversation between Mr. Brown, a British colonizer, and Akunna, Mr. Brown ridicules the fact that they “carve a piece of wood…

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