Rhetorical Figures in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart

Abstract

The present article studies the aspects of rhetorical figures in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. In fact, his novel draws a real picture of Ibo traditional culture in conflict with Western ideas. Through it, readers can learn of the contentment derived from rural life and the unity prevailing in the clan before the advent of the Europeans’ practices which seem to triumph. However, what matters in this study, is Achebe’s literary talent. The matter lies on the way Achebe uses the language for the portrayal of the conflict between the Ibo traditional culture and the Westerner one, as the history of Nigeria in resorting to the use of rhetorical figures in his fiction. Resultingly, thanks to the sociological and linguistical approaches, it results that the success of Achebe’s literary talent is rooted both in Ibo experience on the one hand and in the experience from the West on the other hand. He succeeds for example, in explaining Ibo proverbs in using the English language so as to defend his culture.