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A Consideration of Ethics in Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart by Joanna Johnson, M.A. Background As the editor to the MLA guide on teaching Things Fall Apart comments, "[o]n the surface, Things Fall Apart may seem a simple, uncomplicated story, but it has subtle and profound dimensions that those coming to it for the first time might easily miss" (Linfors 18). This module aims to help teachers and students better understand those dimensions by examining the moral questions the novel raises, which in turn allows the student to better understand ethical decision-making and action. Critic Biodun Jeyifo comments that Things Fall Apart is a "canonical Third World text that appeals to readers everywhere because its seemingly objective realism renders with poignancy and solicitude the plight of the powerless and the dominated" (Linfors 18); in other words, the issues TFA is concerned with are universal issues, ones with which any student can identify. Chinua Achebe himself wants to make the universality of Things Fall Apart clear: One fundamental point...is fundamental and essential to the appreciation of African issues by Americans. Africans are people in the same way that Americans, Europeans, Asians, and others are people. Africans are not some strange beings with unpronounceable names and impenetrable minds...the characters are normal people and their events are real human events. (21)

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

by Joanna Johnson, M.A.

Background

As the editor to the MLA guide on teaching Things Fall Apart comments, "[o]n the surface, Things Fall Apart may seem a simple, uncomplicated story, but it has subtle and profound dimensions that those coming to it for the first time might easily miss" (Linfors 18).

This module aims to help teachers and students better understand those dimensions by examining the moral questions the novel raises, which in turn allows the student to better understand ethical decision-making and action.

Critic Biodun Jeyifo comments that Things Fall Apart is a "canonical Third World text that appeals to readers everywhere because its seemingly objective realism renders with poignancy and solicitude the plight of the powerless and the dominated" (Linfors 18); in other words, the issues TFA is concerned with are universal issues, ones with which any student can identify.

Chinua Achebe himself wants to make the universality of Things Fall Apart clear:

One fundamental point...is fundamental and essential to the appreciation of African issues by Americans. Africans are people in the same way that Americans, Europeans, Asians, and others are people. Africans are not some strange beings with unpronounceable names and impenetrable minds...the characters are normal people and their events are real human events. (21)