After him came a more abundant amount of white men. Much like the locusts with their nutrition, the white men bring culture and tradition. When cultures intertwine some tradition is forgotten while new culture can be accepted. Locusts were heavy enough as a swarm to break even the mightiest of tree branches. This symbolizes how the white men broke the tradition of the native African people. “And a last the locusts did descend. They settled on every tree and on every blade of grass; they settled on the roofs and covered the bare ground.
Mighty tree branches broke away under them” (Achebe 49). Many traditions and culture was fractured by the white men. Religion being a very large part of culture was even broken. People with lower social class found Christianity more appealing than their current religion. The more people who join the white men break their own culture more and more. Locusts truly symbolize the coming of white men who bring nothing but destruction. 1. Own Theme: Fate and Freewill China Achebe shows a strong display of the theme fate and freewill in the evolve Things Fall Apart.
A man’s destiny in determined by his chi, or personal god, whether he is meant for fortune or destruction in the book. Awoken challenges this many times, and he tries to make his own destiny. As a young man Awoken works extremely hard for the success he currently has. “Awoken was clearly cut out for great things. He was still young but he had won fame as the greatest wrestler in the nine villages” (Achebe 5). Despite his hard beginnings, Awoken is still determined too pull out on top.
No matter how hard Awoken works, his rash decisions can change his whole entire life. Awoken has made quite a few life changing decisions in his life, most Of them are for the worst though. His first decision was killing Snakeskin even after warnings from close ones saying not to. This took a great mental toll on Awoken. He started to show that cared and he had feelings. This fueled his anger even more causing him to be more rash and violent. His second decision of killing Sedum’s son had a more tangible punishment.
While it was still an accident, his fate brought misfortune to himself and his family. His final and fatal decision was his own suicide. “Then they came to the tree form which Ginkgo’s body was dangling, and they stopped dead” (Achebe 178). This brings his fate into full circle. He tried changing his fate and becoming successful and strong, but in the end his misfortune returns taking away his status, pride, and life. The theme fate and freewill is very dominant in Things Fall Apart showing fate always wins over freewill.
