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A Consideration of Ethics in Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart by Joanna Johnson, M.A. Overview Setting the Stage: Questions To Think About... Things Fall Apart raises a number of global issues in relation to the ethics of post-colonialism, and to questions of the universality of ethical norms and approaches. The module will ask students to consider the question of whether colonizing another culture or people can ever be "justified." Students will consider questions of moral and cultural relativity. Students can also discuss the parallels between situations in the novel and current issues in the world today. For example, the various rationales for the current situation in the Middle East, in former Soviet states, in Latin America? Can colonization be justified by the benefits it brings to the colonizer? To the colonized?. If so, how much of a benefit and to whom? Are there any universal moral precepts, any specific norms of right and wrong, just and unjust, that can be applied to everyone, regardless of culture, religious beliefs, ethnicity? Introduction Making ethical choices comes from both understanding the values that are behind moral decisions, and from developing critical thinking skills. The aim of this module is to develop and encourage that process of critical thinking through consideration of the ethical dimensions within Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe's 1958 ground-breaking tale of the white man's arrival in an African village at the turn of the century. Although the colonial arrival in the Igbo village of Umuofia brought a "lunatic religion," it also brought "a trading store," where "for the first time palm-oil and kernel became things of great price and much money flowed into Umuofia" (Achebe 126). The novel details what we might call the benefits of colonialism. But the novel also allows us to consider other kinds of important ethical questions, that have to do with individual acts and responsibility-in other words, the question of each of us doing the right thing. For example, Okonkwo's killing of his adopted son, Ikemefuna, has been described as "his knottiest moral dilemma in the novel" (Opata 83). Okonkwo's eventual suicide, which occurs because he is unable to cope with the change brought about by the arrival of the white man, provides opportunity for students to consider further ethical questions: fear of the "other" and the unknown; "savagery" as a cultural definition; colonization as opportunity.

A Consideration of Ethics in Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart

by Joanna Johnson, M.A.

Overview

Setting the Stage: Questions To Think About...

Things Fall Apart raises a number of global issues in relation to the ethics of post-colonialism, and to questions of the universality of ethical norms and approaches.

The module will ask students to consider the question of whether colonizing another culture or people can ever be "justified." Students will consider questions of moral and cultural relativity.

Students can also discuss the parallels between situations in the novel and current issues in the world today. For example, the various rationales for the current situation in the Middle East, in former Soviet states, in Latin America?

Can colonization be justified by the benefits it brings to the colonizer? To the colonized?.
If so, how much of a benefit and to whom?

Are there any universal moral precepts, any specific norms of right and wrong, just and unjust, that can be applied to everyone, regardless of culture, religious beliefs, ethnicity?

Introduction

Making ethical choices comes from both understanding the values that are behind moral decisions, and from developing critical thinking skills. The aim of this module is to develop and encourage that process of critical thinking through consideration of the ethical dimensions within Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe's 1958 ground-breaking tale of the white man's arrival in an African village at the turn of the century.

Although the colonial arrival in the Igbo village of Umuofia brought a "lunatic religion," it also brought "a trading store," where "for the first time palm-oil and kernel became things of great price and much money flowed into Umuofia" (Achebe 126). The novel details what we might call the benefits of colonialism.

But the novel also allows us to consider other kinds of important ethical questions, that have to do with individual acts and responsibility-in other words, the question of each of us doing the right thing. For example, Okonkwo's killing of his adopted son, Ikemefuna, has been described as "his knottiest moral dilemma in the novel" (Opata 83).

Okonkwo's eventual suicide, which occurs because he is unable to cope with the change brought about by the arrival of the white man, provides opportunity for students to consider further ethical questions: fear of the "other" and the unknown; "savagery" as a cultural definition; colonization as opportunity.