Social problems in IBO society reflected in Chinua Achebe’s things fall apart: A Sociological Criticism

ABSTRACT

Author is a member of the society living communally with and adapting to others in a certain social scope. Author thought and feeling are influenced by any kinds of religious convention, social assumptions, cultural attainments, and stipulations existing in his society. Sometimes, author has a different point of view from the society, then, he creates a literary work as a reaction toward and expression toward the society. That is why; literary work is called as the reflection of the social condition in which the literary work created. This point of literary work, as a social reflection, is showed by Chinua Achebe in his novel, Things Fall Apart. In Things Fall Apart, Achebe strives to reflect what social problems that happen in the Ibo ethnic exactly Umofia Society.

Related to the used of literary work as a social reflection, this study aims to answer the following questions; what are the social problems reflected on Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart? What are the differences and the similarities between the social problems reflected on Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and the social problems exist in Ibo’s real society?

To answer these problems, the writer uses sociological criticism considering literary work as a social reflection. By using sociological criticism the writer can easily identify and answer the research problems, since the use of sociological criticism is connecting the characters and the background condition exist in the novel with that in the real society as the novel.

After analyzing the data the writer finds several social problems revealed in the novel, Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, they are; poverty, Family disorganization, Social norm infraction and youth problem. There are also some differences and similarities between the social problems in Ibo society revealed in the novel, Things Fall Apart, and that in Ibo’s real society. The differences of these two aspects are, including the position of women and the existence of family disorganization as one of the social problems. Then, the similarities include the traditions, belief system, and some social problems. It can be said that by reading the novel, Things Fall Apart, the reader can acknowledge the real life of Ibo community. Hence it can be briefly said that Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is the novel that reflects Ibo community’s real life, with its traditions and social problems exist. Nevertheless, as two different things, there are also some differences exist. These dissimilarities are quite usual because before the author writes and narrates the idea he found in the society, he firstly processes his idea in his mind. Hence the result of his thinking process, in the form of literary work, is strongly influenced by his background, expectation, and way of thinking.