Things Fall Apart

Misconception of the Generation Gap College

Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart, is set in Nigeria; the novel examines the clash between traditional African culture, and western ideals by the Igbo tribe, through the protagonist, Okonkwo. Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel, Purple Hibiscus, is a story about a teenage girl, Kambili, which focuses on family relationships and cultural ethics. Moroccan author Laila Lalami’s novel, Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, examines the life of four Moroccans who are fleeing Morocco to Spain in search of greener pastures. Things Fall Apart, Purple Hibiscus, and Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, portray that defiance within children to their parents’ beliefs is attributed by generation gap in families, between parent and child, and it is influenced by imperialism, and the society, as the children attain their socio-cultural identity and it causes scramble between the parent and child relationship.

Imperialists “submerged and dismantled indigenous institutions and, in its place, a foreign rule was established. Traditional institutions before then were regarded as not only political authorities but also custodians of cultures” (Arowolo 7). The clash between the Western, and African ideals of African citizens created...

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