People Fall Apart Things Fall Apart by Chinua AchebeKarl Marx believed that all of history could be reduced to two little words: struggle of classes. At any given time, a dominant class is exploiting a weaker class. Marx defines a ruling class as one that owns or controls the means of production. The weakest class is those who don't. In Marx's time, in the age of all-powerful industry, the means of production were factories. But as a literary theory, Marxism has no need for factories as means of production. All it takes are words, specifically chosen to justify an official vision of a dominant class, in our case, in a society guided by capitalism. This official view is sometimes disguised as what we might otherwise call culture. Marxist theory can be applied to Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart in two ways, one from within the story and the other from outside. Let's first look at the story itself. It would be inaccurate to claim that the Igbo society of Things Fall Apart is no different from a Western society in its representation of capitalism. But that is because Igbo culture does not represent capitalism as we may think. There are no factories in turn-of-the-century Africa, but there are similarities between a capitalist society and Igbo society. For example, they both emphasize the importance of strength and competition between individuals. In Igbo culture, competition is presented more as a game than a business. The first pages of the novel explain Okonkwo's notoriety among his village. “A young man of eighteen, he did honor to his village by launching Amalinze the cat. Amalinze was the great wrestler who was undefeated for seven years...? (3). On page eight, at the end of the first chapter...... middle of paper ......village. The damage was done even before the arrival of the British. His society was complacent about change, content to abandon its traditions to a different culture. By killing the messenger at the end of the novel, Okonkwo sought to save the culture that had collapsed long before that point. And like his culture before him, he collapsed when no one else stood up. Whether he hanged himself or not, under British rule he would still have died. Works Cited Achebe, Chinua. Things are falling apart. New York, NY: Anchor Books: Doubleday. 1959. Appiah, Anthony. ?Topologies in nativism.? Literary Theory: An Anthology. Edited by Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers Inc. 1998. Said, Edward. ?Orientalism.? Literary Theory: An Anthology. Edited by Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. Malden, Mass. : Blackwell Publishers Inc.. 1998.