Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Book Cover for Things Fall Apart: 

Chinua Achebe:

Setting of Things Fall Apart:

Storyboard for an early chapter:

Rationale for piece: This work is extremely important for students to read. It completely changes buried stereotypical views of African tribes, as well as addressing gender in their community. I would love to teach this in a twelfth grade class someday, and spend a whole unit on it with activities, discussion, and a final paper. This would also be interesting to read after teaching Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, since this novel is a response to how Conrad classifies the Congo people. Students would be able to connect more with the Congo tribes after reading this novel. I would like to do several activities comparing the Congo village as portrayed in the book to students lives. This book helped me gain a sense of what African tribes were really like, and I think that it is important for students to understand. It would let students compare and contrast the two novels, and relate Things Fall Apart to their own life. This would be beneficial since African tribes seem so foreign to us in the United States, and reading this will let students make connections to their lives. This will make the African tribes seem more real and relatable to students. It can also segue into an upcoming unit on gender.