Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart follows a wealthy and respected warrior, Okonkwo, living in a late 1800’s Nigerian tribe. Haunted by the actions that led his father, Unoka, into exile, Okonkwo leads his life by rejecting his father’s feeble and “feminine” demeanor. To fully denounce his father’s scarred reputation, Okonkwo embodies, what he feels, is an ideal warrior to a great extreme. While Okonkwo hopes to gain the respect of his clan, his actions that reflect this warrior construct are interpreted differently by his fellow clansmen.

Achebe immerses readers in pages of pure Igbo culture, bringing readers into a full understanding of the societal customs and government of the Igbo people in Nigeria at this moment in time. However, the end of the novel is met with the growing and consuming influence of British colonial expansion. Through tactics of pacification and outward violence, the colonial missionaries successfully break apart Okonkwo’s tribe. When Okonkwo attempts to resist these abrupt changes, his clan responds indifferently to his ambition. Through this rejection, Okonkwo meets his tragic downfall as a result of his weak collective identity.

Achebe concludes in the novel with a jarring transition into the perspective of a colonial missionary, in which the missionary decides to write a novel, titled The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger, that encapsulates Okonkwo’s tragic and complex life into a single paragraph. The demeaning language used in this title, as well as the arrogance and indifference highlighted in the missionary’s brief inclusion of Okonkwo, struck me the hardest. I felt that the most significant moment of the novel occurred at the end, in which Achebe illuminates a major global issue: outsider perspectives, such as that of the missionary, diminish and flatten the depth of insider perspectives.

While insider perspectives show depth and reality, outsider perspectives can misrepresent, simplify, or erase the lived reality of underprivileged groups. The insensitivity of an outsider can strip the dignity and traditions of an insider, creating a contrast between what readers know and what an outsider records. Ultimately, Achebe’s novel presents readers with a universal message: perspective directs our knowledge and only those with first-hand knowledge and experience should have the privilege of telling their story.