Things Fall Apart: Genre 1 key example

Within these dichotomies—or binaries—two ideas or categories are presented as being entirely separate and opposed to one another. Some such ideas or categories within the postcolonial genre include: Black/White, civilized/barbaric, Christian/heathen. In each of these binary pairings, one idea is typically considered morally or aesthetically superior to the other. White people, for example, receive greater privilege and less persecution than Black people under the racist systems of colonial oppression. Similarly, those who were considered "civilized Christians" (mostly White Europeans) received greater respect, privilege, and societal regard than those considered "uncivilized heathens" (mostly indigenous people with darker skin).

Postcolonial works like Things Fall Apart "deconstruct" binaries, undermining the harmful power structures they reinforce. Take, for instance, the civilized/uncivilized binary, which assumes that White people are more "civilized" and therefore morally superior to "uncivilized" indigenous people. In Things Fall Apart, Achebe spends a great deal of time showcasing the intricacies of social life in Umuofia, countering the narrative that indigenous people are inherently "less developed" than their European counterparts.