I am going to use the postcolonial theory to write my essay. I think this provides a good lens into things fall apart because it shows how colonization is ruled by the people who colonize, meaning that whoever is the one taking over wiil effectively change how the people that took over's thoughts and ways of life. this applies to things fall apart because in the story, there is a struggle between whether or not the people of the village should conform or keep their traditions.
Conform and be quiet; deny yourself, and all will be well. This is a quote from the postcolonial piece and it is an example of how people are forced to think the way that they are told when being colonized. This can cause people to be confused and possibly lose all sense of self because they have been taught to think one way by their traditions and culture and to be told to conform and take in all of these new ideas that are conflicting with their old traditions will cause them to be angry, confused or both. What people don't realize when they are being told to conform though is that the ideas they are being told to conform and take in could be right but they already have their own ideas so they refuse to take in any new ideas because of stubbornness. I'm not saying that making people conform is a good thing in any sense, but stubbornness is the main reason for them not wanting to conform. They feel that if they rebel like Okonkwo in things fall apart, they will be considered heroes. But even he realized that lashing out was the wrong way to approach things.
