Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart reflects historical fact as it fictionally portrays traditional African life in a Nigerian village before and after the coming of the white man. The author portrays history not only in a fictional context, but also in a subjective way, clearly sympathetic to the plight of the Africans, especially the hero Okonkwo, and critical of the imperialistic Europeans. The book is effective in transmitting the injustices of imperialism and the tragedy of the Africans and their way of life in large part because it so realistically portrays both oppressor and oppressed. The novel gives Achebe an important advantage over a non-fictional work: it is easier for the reader to identify and sympathize with Ibo society through the invented character Okonkwo than it would be in a work which attempts to objectively present the "facts" without appealing to the reader's deeper emotional and psychological impulses.
Achebe describes the Nigerian village as one defined by traditions and rituals which give the society order and organization. The author gives his novel historical accuracy by including all the prejudices, chauvinism and superstitions of the African people. For example, after reading the horrible treatment of the dead body of the child Onwumbiko by the medicine man, no reader could accuse Achebe of idealizing the Ibo people:
He brought out a sharp razor . . . and began to mutilate the child. Then he took it away to bury it in the Evil Forest, holding it by the ankle and dragging it on the ground behind him (78-79).
The novelist with such examples requires effort from the reader that a more scholarly writer would not. The non-fiction writer, after presenting such an example, would probably feel obliged immediately to urge the Western reader not to be biased against such a ritualistic burial. Achebe, on the other hand, leaves it up to the intelligent reader to come to his or her own conclusions. Su...