Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

The Plot: Things Fall Apart is a novel set in Nigera in the late nineteeth or early twentieth century. The main protagonist is a man named Okonkwo. The book chronicles his life in his small village, Umuofia, starting with rememberances of his father and the avoidance of war with another village. By sidestepping war, Okonkwo receives into his family a hostage from the offending town. The pivotal plot lines are Okonkwo and his sons and the arrival or Christian missionaries to their village.


The Characters: Okonkwo is an intriguing character. After finishing the book, I still can’t decide if I like him or not. He’s a strong man, who grew up despising everything his father was: sensitive, gentle, friendly. But also: weak, lazy, and very unsuccessful. Okonkwo from a very young age was deathly afraid of turning out like his father and was determined to make a great life for himself. However, he despises any expression of love or tenderness as weakness and his wives and children suffer for it. He does love, but is unwilling to show it. To the people under him, Okonkwo is a harsh master, expecting the best and not allowing for weaknesses. But to his peers and elder kinsmen he’s generous and respectful. He’s an amazingly subtle character.

There are few other characters with any real substance with the exceptions being Okonkwo’s son Nwoye, his daughter Ezinma, and the hostage boy Ikemefuna.

Storytelling: What ever may be lacking in the absence of a multitude of well developed, diverse, characters Achebe makes up for in storytelling! He shows this culture that is so beautiful and different from my own. He also has a great command of the English language for not being a native speaker!

The beginning was a bit difficult due to the foreignness of the names. It took me a while to figure out who was who due to my inability to pronounce the names. The minor characters are still kind of a blur but as you progress through the novel you do start to figure the names out. The other main comprehension problem I had was some of the Nigerian words Achebe uses. Thankfully there is a short dictionary at the back of the book to reference. Unfortunately I didn’t realize this until after I’d finished so I spent a lot of time flipping back through the book trying to understand.

A large part of their culture is the use of proverbs: i.e. “when the moon is shining the cripple becomes hungry for a walk.” The book’s just littered with these little nuggets of wisdom!

Overall: I enjoyed this book! It was really short, very to the point, immensely easy to follow. I remain fascinated by Okonkwo! I still can’t really figure out if I like him or not.

I was saddened by the portrayal of the “Christian” missionaries. I’m sure it was an accurate picture but still it breaks your heart to see how they use God as a means to gain power. The first missionary in charge didn’t seem that bad, he wasn’t dead set on converting everyone, but he eventually gets replaced by one who is much worse. Then when the laws of Umuofia are invoked and carried out, the Christians arrest the village elders. It’s infuriating how meddlesome they are! They just assume their way is better when this village has been thriving for ages before they came in an started interfering. It makes you realize, me very sadly, that sometimes the bad reputation Christians have is very well deserved.

I would highly recommend this book!

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

I’d forgotten just how twitchy this book makes me. The first time I read it, unwisely I think now, was my freshman year in high school. Who lets a fifteen year old girl read this? Granted I probably didn’t understand as much of it then as I do now but still. I don’t think I should have read this book at fifteen. Dregs up too many of my own psychological quirks. As I read through it this time, I got worried with how well I understood the emotions Plath describes.


The Plot: Esther Greenwood is a nineteen year old girl who has recently won a contest. The prize is a month in New York getting some on the job experience at a fashion magazine. Esther is a straight-A English major but one who doesn’t know what she wants to do with the rest of her life. She’s faced with so many choices but can’t seem to summon enough effort to get interested in anything. This culminates in a severe time of depression when she returns home to Boston after her stay in New York. She can’t sleep, can’t read, and can’t write so she goes to see a psychiatrist whose only attempt at help is to suggest shock treatments, which was still a popular form of therapy in the ‘50s when the book is set. There follows the tale of her life in and out of asylums.

The Characters: Esther is really the only character with any real depth. She seems very real to me, which I attribute to her close relation to Silvia Plath. One writes best what one knows; and confusion and suicide attempts are something Plath was intimately familiar with. Due to her experiences with the events in the novel she is able to add so much more depth than if a completely mentally healthy person had attempted the same. Esther’s character is not very invested in any one else, almost as if they aren’t wholly real to her. The result is that none of the other characters seem as real to the reader as Esther does.

Storytelling: This novel is told wonderfully! It’s in first person through Esther Greenwood eyes. Plath excels at defining the indefinable. She takes the hurricane of Esther’s thoughts and feelings and if not calms them at least makes them understandable.

I love how the novel every now and then will break off and focus on the most random event. For instance, the Ladies’ Day banquet, where Esther sits and wonders if she’ll be able to make sure the caviar bowl closest to her stays untouched by anyone but her. The random tangents she goes off on and the offbeat descriptions that seem to fit perfectly captivate me. “On every side of me the red and blue and white jacketed skiers tore away down the blinding slope like fugitive bits of an American flag.”

Theme: Esther’s an expert at avoiding things that make her uncomfortable. One of her tangents is the tale of how she managed to get out of learning chemistry. When she’s faced with a limitless future she gets, understandably, very uncomfortable. The future though is a hard thing to avoid. She’s unable to sidestep the looming unpleasantness which is a major factor in her downward spiral. The book ends with her walking into a room of her own volition for an interview to see if she’s ready to leave the asylum she’s been living in and face the real world once again. I think near the end of the book she’s finally learned that there are some things that you just can’t run from.

Overall: This book is a literary piece of art! The last few books I’ve read seemed more for entertainment than for getting a message across. Though I don’t think Plath was necessarily after getting a message across either. I wonder what she got out of writing it. When I write, I see things clearer, I’m more rational, and I walk away feeling better than I had. But writing about her feelings and what she went through obviously didn’t help her in the end. Esther escaped the book relatively unscathed but sadly Plath didn’t and successfully committed suicide a month after the novels first publication. I don’t know if I could go so far as to assume what she was going for in writing The Bell Jar, I’m just glad she did.

I would GREATLY RECOMMEND this book!!