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  • Essay / Importance of Representations in Things Fall Apart By...

    In the novel Things Fall Apart, author Chinua Achebe highlights representations of race, covering traits ranging from violent and intrusive to judgmental and ignorant and the different contexts in which they arise. These representations can be explored and understood more deeply through Carey Snyder's scholarly work and her commentary on Achebe's unique narrative style. Among other things, Snyder challenges "the pervasive ethnographic and anthropological mode of reading Achebe's novel" (156). Snyder insists that the novel must be read "meta-ethnographically, in a way that takes into account the complexity inherent in any ethnographic situation" and thus reveals "the achievements of the narrative as fiction" (157). . In doing so, Snyder believes that the reader is able to achieve a level of appreciation regarding the novel's non-ethnographic literary value, rather than the novel simply being "cultural documentation" (157). Although I recognize that the novel is more than a simple ethnographic reading of the cultures represented, I believe that the representations should not be considered primarily on this level of fictional nature "subtly reproduced at the level of style", but rather be used to see the elements of individuality and human nature, which are in fact non-fictional (Snyder 169). I will argue that the depictions of the Igbo as well as the British are not only influenced by the author, as Synder suggests, but, in doing so, inaccurate and extreme. They can be observed on a global scale, revealing traits found everywhere in humans, and thus making an argument about human nature as a whole rather than just the races that represent them. The novel Things Fall Apart highlights the notion of violence and abuse. .....in the middle of papers ......s, laws, rules or even religion, there still exists an individuality attributed to each person. Thus, I believe that Okonkwo's violent reaction as well as the abusive behavior of the messengers speaks more to the inherent qualities of individuals as human beings from all walks of life, impacted by different environments, rather than revealing characteristic traits of a certain race, as some readers may wrongly believe. In conclusion, the depictions of race in Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart highlight the broader issue of humanistic qualities and nuances of individualism within the Igbo and British cultures, and the Black and Caucasian races respectively. These are addressed through the scholarly work of Carey Snyder, assisting the reader by highlighting the subtleties of Achebe's perspective and its effect on the ethnographic value of the novel..