Write a thesis statement and three topic
statements to address the following prompt:
The personal history of an author can
have a significant influence on the way meaning is constructed in his/her
writing. Comment on specific instances of such influence in Things Fall Apart.
In the novel, Things Fall
Apart, the author’s background and upbringing plays a significant role in the
contribution and decision making that is implemented in the story. By
connecting the author’s personal history to the story, we are able to identify
and rectify his choice in character, the cultural context that the novel was
set in, and the overall revealing message of the novel.
- Topic Sentence 1
Chinua Achebe's past and Christian
upbringing gives the readers a better understanding of the characters he
created within Umofia, specifically with Mr. Smith. A Christian missionary who
was characterized as a respectable man who valued the traditions and values of
the Igbo people; Achebe creates this character to show how he deviates from the
traditional and "evil" missionaries that we are introduced to later
in the novel. Mr. Smith almost mirrors Achebe's dilemma of trying to create the
perfect balance between the colonizers and the Igbo people.
-Topic Sentence 2
Despite writing the novel
in 1958, just a few years before Nigeria's independence, Achebe set's the novel
Things Falls Apart during the 1890's, purposely setting the novel to show the
transition of Nigeria; through their independence of the 1890's to the beginning
of the British colonization. In addition, it gives readers an opportunity to
experience an authentic Igbo lifestyle as we see how the protagonist deals with
ideologies of the colonizers interrupting his world. And to try and justify and
give his people the voice to show that the Igbo are not the "savages"
that western stories had made them to be.
Topic 3
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