Editing Things Fall Apart (section)

==Themes==
===Culture===
''Things Fall Apart'' depicts the cultural roots of the Igbos and refers them as a universal principle, which revives the lost dignity of the people during the [[Colonial Nigeria]].{{sfn|Rhoads|1993|p=61}}
{{blockquote|one general 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. Although the action of ''Things Fall Apart'' takes place in a setting with which most Americans are unfamiliar, the characters are normal people who undergo real life experiences. The necessity even to say this is part of a burden imposed on us by the customary denigration of Africa in the popular imagination of the West.|author=Chinua Achebe|source={{sfn|Rhoads|1993|p=62}}}}
Historians focuses on past African Empires in order to improve the status of African history, but Achebe breaks this pattern by portraying Igbo people as isolated with an established tradition.{{sfn|Rhoads|1993|p=62}} For example, when the missionaries entered Mbanta, they expected there to be a king. Upon being told there was none, they set up their own ruling system. In ''Things Fall Apart'', there is a contradiction between different cultural practices;
for example, the Europeans allow men to fight over religion but the Igbo tradition forbids the killing of one another.{{sfn|Rhoads|1993|p=63}}

Achebe presents some standard for the Igbo culture while not idealizing the past, like the troubling culture for modern democrats is the law that says Ikemefuna should be killed for the sins of his clans.{{sfn|Rhoads|1993|p=68}} Although Achebe shows the treachery, ignorance, and intolerance of the British, he doesn't present them as fully evil people. Instead he uses both cultures—British and Igbo—to represent two mixtures of human beings as seen in Okonkwo and Mr. Smith, who both refuse to compromise when their cultures are threatened.{{sfn|Rhoads|1993|p=69}}