Things Fall Apart by Achebe

  In Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe gives an informative insight into what life in the Igbo culture was like before Europeans arrived and how drastically it changed afterwards. The first part of the story is most ineteresting because it tells a story where all of the characters, the setting, and perhaps even the tone of the story is all non-Western. This aspect of it provides an almost flawless representation of African culture the way it was before whites arrived on the scene.
  The first part also gets the reader well acquainted with the main character, Okonkwo, most notably his pronounced masculinity and his stubborness and fear of appearing too feminine. He continually strive to move up the social ladder out of shame of his father who was weak and lowly. When the second part of the story begins, he is banished to his mother's land and the whole time there plans for his return to Umuofia. Okonkwo is also representative of Igbo culture in general and his death in the third part reflects the fall of the Igbo people and their culture as they knew it.