《Things Fall Apart》是尼日利亚作家阿契贝《Things Fall Apart》是尼日利亚作家阿契贝的代表作，描写了伊博族传统文化与殖民主义的冲突。主人公奥康科在文化冲突中逐渐失去一切，最终走向毁灭。小说通过对传统与现代、个人与社会的对立描绘出一个深刻的文化冲突的形象。
《Things Fall Apart》读后感(篇一)
老师让写essay, 题目是
“It is a universal truth that people are indifferent towards those who are different from them”
要求是“Discuss the validity of this statement with reference to Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.
但是我盯着题目看了半小时还不知从何入笔！！
过几天要交作业，急~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
哪位大神可以指点一下，告诉我写作的思路。。。
《Things Fall Apart》读后感(篇二)
1. 很多proverbs
—作者的原话是， “Among the Ibo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm oil with which words are eaten.”
—大致，通过oral tradition的呈现，作者展示了Nigerian/African culture很生动、多彩的一面；谚语本身就是智慧的结晶，一代一代在民族内相传的精神财富，所以他会觉得哪怕Western literature有对非洲的描述，甚至于这些描述本身的出发点可能是好的，但这样的一个叙述是不完整的，非洲人需要有自己的声音。毕竟这些文化是殖民者/旅行者很难接触并深刻理解的部分。
He insists, “the story we had to tell could not be told for us by anyone else no matter how gifted or well intended.”
这就像深受Achebe的文学作品影响的尼日利亚当代女作家Chimamanda在她八年前的ted talk里面讲的一样，a single story is dangerous because it is incomplete and it is dominant.
没写完，改天继续写，懒了
《Things Fall Apart》读后感(篇三)
似乎是我读的第一本非洲作者的小说，契机是因为在一个发展经济的讲座上那位大佬在讲Nigeria本身所蕴含的发展的可能性-而不是通过西方的帮助发展的可能性，然后提到了这本我在书店里也看到了的书。带着这样的视角，会在书里看到很多这位经济学家提到的对发展有益的民俗，例如他们的meritocratic制度、对女神的尊重、对部落族群的看重（而不是金钱）。
我觉得整个故事里有一种克制，虽说是关于殖民侵犯的，但几乎4/5的故事里都在讲主人公原先的部落生活，也完全没有花大篇幅描写殖民者对原住民的残忍等等，仅仅提到殖民者对原住民信仰的不尊重和对他们institution的强行override。（信仰和政府真的是非常紧密连接的）
但是对原住民生活的描述确实起到了反殖民者/西方视角的作用：读的时候可以看到原住民中也有人对自己迷信的制度的反省，可以发现他们对这一套民俗的尊重是如何形成一个有效的social contract，让他们和平共处的。在这本书里，原住民的生活是有血有肉的。这跟单一地认为原住民文化是“落后的”、认为原住民仅仅是客体的“受害者”或许是不一样的。
很喜欢故事的结尾：传教士想像自己该如何把主人公的死写进他的书里-他说，或许可以用一个章节，至少也能是一个小节。而在这里主人公的一生填满了一整本书。作者无疑是made a point：西方人只是带着看新奇事物的眼光来观察非洲，他们从未尝试感同身受过这个土地上的人的体验。
《Things Fall Apart》读后感(篇四)
《分崩离析》（Things Fall Apart）是尼日利亚作家齐鲁瓦•阿契比（Chinua Achebe）的力作。讲述了非洲土著欧康寇（Okonkwo）的一生故事。欧康寇生性要强，一心希望出人头地，挣一份足以自傲的家业。自己的父亲好吃懒散，母亲终日忙碌，使他从小就对懒惰深恶痛绝。成年以后，欧康寇勤奋劳作，终于开创了一份让人羡慕的家业：一所大宅、三个老婆、充足的粮食。他惟劳动为先，认为勤奋致富是天经地义的。在本族人依宙杜（Ezeudu）的葬礼上，欧康寇错手杀死了死者16岁的儿子，虽然杀人偿命似乎天经地义，但是部族的习俗却容他躲避到母亲的亲属那里，放逐7年，方可回乡。欧康寇平静地接受了部族习俗的安排。7年后，他雄心勃勃地返回故里，满心希望大干一场，正待他的生活蒸蒸日上之际，一切却随着白人殖民者的进入而渐渐瓦解。长子纳沃依（Nwoye）不满父亲强悍的家长作风，在白人传教士那里找到安慰。欧康寇对此大为光火，却又无可奈何。在一次与教会的冲突中，欧康寇杀死一名传教士，他自知白人不会善罢甘休，势必牵连全村的乡邻，最终悬梁自尽。
故事的有趣之处，在于对比了土著与白人的价值观，并且用土著的眼光去评判白人传教士/殖民者的“文明之风”。土著和白人生活在两个迥异的世界，土著的世界并非白人所宣扬的一味野蛮无知，他们的伦理道德丝毫不逊于白人所推崇的价值观，即《圣经》里宣扬的那一套，欧康寇误杀人子，放逐异乡就是最好的佐证。相形之下，白人的阴谋诡计（诱捕部族头人），对欧康寇杀人举动表现的睚眦必报，都为白人所宣扬的上帝蒙上了一层阴影，让人不禁要问：究竟上帝讲的是不是对的？为什么他的子民会说一套、做一套？
小说手法传统，表现非洲土著的真实生活，用意是拨开长期以来笼罩在其身上的迷雾，为欧洲人心目中“黑暗的中心”点燃一盏明灯，让非洲土著从沉默走向言说、从隐形走向真实。在此意义上，阿契比的《分崩离析》可谓用心良苦。可是，这也无疑暴露了小说急于向欧洲人证明自己的企图。或可谓，小说的隐含读者是否是白人？我无法深究这些疑问，阅读总会有这样那样的疑问，有时，不求甚解比之分毫必较更能保全阅读的乐趣。若然一切都清清楚楚、明明白白，哪还觅得“犹抱琵琶半遮面”的美态？
《Things Fall Apart》读后感(篇五)
There are couples of things that can be listed to explain why the Igbo society fell apart by the conquer of the Westerners, such as the lack of knowing of the white people (Things Fall Apart, p.74, 138), the absence of the legal system that when they faced a problem, they dealt with it by asking God instead of using a law (Things Fall Apart, p.12), and the deficiency of the science and technology when they faced the natural disasters and the illness (Things Fall Apart, Chapter Three, Chapter Nine); All of these shortcoming made the Igbo society cannot follow the step of the new era, and cannot survive from the modernized Westerners.
Nevertheless, besides the campaigns from the white, the crucial causation that made the Igbo society fell apart was traditional customs it had had for a long time. In other word, the harmful parts of the customs of the Igbo society expedited the collapse of itself under the circumstance of the Westerner’s military campaign.
However, it could be told that the traditional customs helped to organized and governed the Igbo in some degree, dealing problems with negotiation instead of war (Things Fall Apart, p.12), and letting people live together peaceful (Things Fall Apart, p.32), for instance; yet, the influences of the customs that separated the Igbo and hurt their feelings are much more effective than uniting them together.
As one of the oldest members of the umunna mentioned that “I fear for the younger generation […] because you do not understand how strong is the bond of kinship. You do not know what it is to speak with one voice.” (Things Fall Apart, p.167) And the White people used the new religion to separate the Igbo people that if the traditional people wanted to fight with the followers of the White, they would fight with their own people. That may sound like what Okonkwo always said, the Igbo people did not unit together any more. However, there was the contradiction in the Igbo society that the ones who said they should be united did the things that separated the Igbo society apart.
At the very forepart that the white men begun to send evangelists, the leaders of the clan did not pay much attention on the expand of the white man’s new God, because they thought that the new religion’s converts were some people without title that cannot be respected in the clans, so they did not care what they did (Things Fall Apart, p.143). And it also mentioned that there is a pregnant that had borne twins for four times which regarded as bad omen in the Igbo customs. When she became the convert of the white man’s religion, her husband and his family thought it was a good riddance that they should not be concerned with her anymore (Things Fall Apart, p,151). And then, nearly all of the outcasts of the Igbo society join Christian when they saw the new religion accepted all the people whom seemed as the bad things in the Igbo’s traditional customs (Things Fall Apart, p.157).
According to all of these, it draws the conclusion that most of converts who joined Christian had no social position, could not be respected in the Igbo society. They cannot participated into any social decision, like Okonkwo’s wife was blamed when she asked about the little boy Ikemefuna (Things Fall Apart, p.14); their thinking and saying cannot be heard (Things Fall Apart, p.143); moreover, they were driven out from the church by the Igbo people only because of their social position simply (Things Fall Apart, p.156). They were low-born person, separated by the Igbo people firstly and cannot fit themselves into the society anymore; therefore, when the new religion came and said that all of them were equal, and they would be loved, these people were willing to become converts not long after (Things Fall Apart, p.149).
In addition, the traditional customs of Igbo society were sternly cool and unmoved. Such as the tragedy of Ikemefuna, the boy was fancied by Umuofia people, had gotten along with them quite well for three years, and called Okonkwo father (Things Fall Apart, p.34, 52, 57); however, only because the boy was the reparation of that his father killed a Umuofia woman, he should be executed, on the basis of the Igbo customs, which hurt Okonkwo and his son Nwoye’s feelings sharply and deeply (Things Fall Apart, p.61-63).
Besides, deemed to be the typical symbol of the traditional customs of Igbo society, what the activities and thinking Okonkwo had could suggest the characterization of the Igbo. As Okonkwo, the traditional Igbo was a society of “man” that always fascinated using fight to figure out all troubles, discriminated gentleness and showing any emotion frankly (Things Fall Apart, p.13, 28).
In the saying of the Uchendu, when people got grieves and miseries, they found sanctuary in their motherland (Things Fall Apart, p.134); howbeit, the people could not show any of their difficultness, nor get any pacification or comfort from their motherland, because those were regarded as shamefulness in Igbo society. There would be wounds in the Igbo people’s hearts that cannot heal, such as Nwoye whose childhood friend and brother executed by his father. Thus, when Nwoye heard the poetry of the new religion, he felt a relief in his soul, and was cured by the poetry (Things Fall Apart, p.147); That was why Nwoye was bewitched by it and became a convert shortly afterwards: the new religion of the white man was kind of medicine that can cover their lacerated hearts.
Obviously, it could not blame on those kinds of things that Igbo society did, because of the limitation of that time period; however it should be noticed that owing to these harsh and unfair traditional customs which hurt the inner connection of the Igbo society and the feelings of people, Westerners could conduct military campaigns to conquer Igbo society much more easily, on account of the cured effects that the new religion had on the Igbo society.
《Things Fall Apart》读后感(篇六)
Chinua Achebe brings us in close contact with the life of the African people. His books read like guidebooks to the climate, landscape, customs, religion, politics and various other detailed aspects of African culture. His first book, Things Fall Apart, tells the life stories of the Ibo (Igbo) people in Africa and how that collective life crumbles under the impact of British colonialism.
For half of the book Things Fall Apart Achebe just patiently describes the pre-colonial life of the Umuofia villagers. Umuofia is often depicted as one individual: Achebe writes how Umuofia “was in a festival mood” when the Feast of the New Yam approaches (37; ch. 5), how it “had dozed in the noon-day haze” and “broke into life and activity” (54; ch. 7), and how it is “swallowed up in sleep and silence” (113; ch. 13), as if this primitive community has one united mind and soul. It does not have an absolute leader, but is guided by elders, grandees, and honorable men who have taken titles. At the center of the story is Okonkwo, the great wrestler famous throughout the nine villages of Umuofia for his personal achievements. Strong and bellicose, Okonkwo represents the ancient veneration for prowess and virility. The indigenous life teems with natural disasters and human violence, but things are nevertheless held together in harmony by shared beliefs, basically religious beliefs, upon which customs and laws are constructed. Even when one rule is violated, as is in Okonkwo’s case when he shoots a boy of the community accidentally, there are other rules to be followed for the punishment of the violation—Okonkwo has to flee his people and can only return after seven years. Nothing is out of place.
The binding force of religion is a mixture of inheritance from ancestors and maintenance by the villagers’ willing subscription. It is interesting to note how the people are awed by the beliefs they themselves help to construct. Okonkwo, who fears the ghosts of his ancestors, disguises as one of the nine egwugwu, the ancestral spirits of the village, to serve their judicial function. Although his wives recognize his figure, they keep it to themselves. There are moments when the veil of religion is lifted and truth peeps from below, and people avert their faces. In this way the dignity of the Ibo religion is kept safe, and it in turn keeps the clan safe in a united whole.
It is when the white man, the British, comes, that things begin to fall apart. A clan, Abame, is wiped out by a group of armed white men in avenge of the scout who was killed by the clan people. After that the missionaries come and build their church. They are a milder group, yet their influence is not a bit less disastrous to the wholesome state of the clans, as Christianity poses challenges to the very basis and core of the indigenous culture, the Ibo religion, which is time and again exposed to be superstitious and powerless. As Christianity wins more and more local people to its side, the African community is more and more divided. It is exactly as Obierika puts it: “The white man … put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart” (162; ch. 20). Apart from the church the white men also establish a government among the African people and begin to exert their administrative and judicial powers. Meanwhile a trading store is set up where people in Umuofia sell palm-oil and kernel at great prices. The political, religious and economic factors in the British colonist activities always go together, and though in Things Fall Apart we mainly encounter the first two, we may expect the picture to expand in Achebe’s following novels, given that he arranges his books in a chronological sequence and that in real history the first phase of British colonization in Africa was soon followed by stages soaked with the blood of African forced labourers and slaves.
Achebe does not depict the African culture without exposing its evil. The murder of the boy Ikemefuna from another clan, who has been kept hostage under Okonkwo’s roof for years, and the custom of throwing twins away and let them die in the forest, are both dictated by the so-called Oracle in the village and both come as shocks to Nwoye, son of Okonkwo, and make him feel something snapping and giving away inside him (59-60; ch. 7). Those are the things which first crack an opening, through which the new religion, like a wedge, comes in and drives things apart. Nwoye’s conversion to Christianity signifies the great moment when father and son, the older and younger generation of one people, fall apart. On the other hand, British colonialism is not depicted with undistinguished disapproval either. The malign impact killing off African tradition coexists with the benign action of saving twin babies’ lives. Mr. Brown, the first British missionary, represents the humanitarian branch of colonialism with his mercy and patience, and his successor, the Reverend James Smith, though far less sympathetic and more severe, is not reduced to void of admirable quality. The conflict between his Christians and the village people comes more like a natural outgrowth. But the deep tone of regret is unmistakable. Achebe’s diction is simple, corresponding to the naive and straightforward mind of the African people, yet his voice reaches far. Harold Bloom calls this characteristic tonality “simplification through intensity”.* Achebe criticizes, but he does not rage. He approaches his theme with a calm mood, never appearing to be amazed even at the most outrageous moment, i. e. suicide of Okonkwo after killing the British head messenger and feeling deserted by his own people. Yet the intensity of feelings has already built up through the detailed presentation of the various aspects of a self-sufficient African community, so that when destructive impacts set in the reader receives the shock with full force. The whole book is significantly divided into two parts, the first about the undisturbed life of the African people, the second the collective life crumbling under British colonialism.
* Bloom, Harold, “Introduction,” Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretations: Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, ed. Harold Bloom, NY: Infobase, 2010, 1.
