Throughout his life, Okonkwo lived his life in fear for he does not want to be like his father, but when he hung himself, he condescended lower than his father in the eyes of his people. .
Another theme in the book has already been listed above, where Christianity entered Africa and converted the people of the villages to abandon their traditional ways to follow their religion. The British at that time were trying to colonize Africa, so they wanted to push out the African's customs, believing that they were doing the good deed by civilizing the villagers. In Things Fall Apart, Achebe demonstrated his theme by revealing the truth about the consequences of the white men's arrival to a country: wherever the Caucasians (British) chose to colonize, the country's centuries-old tradition fell into demise. An example of this would be the after and before beliefs of the villagers" religion. The Christian missionaries convinced the villagers that their Gods are defective, merely nothing more than of wood and blocks, and only the Christian God alone is the true God. A lot of the tribes" people converted into Christianity and the bond between the clansmen broke apart. Achebe clearly portrayed that whatever country received the exposure of the white men, its people and culture never behaves the same way again.
The story was taken place in the Ibo societies of West Africa. The author purposefully chose this place for the primary reason that the reader does not know about the societies, and as the book progresses, the reader learns more about the lifestyle and culture of the tribes" people. When Achebe added in the existence of the British's presence, he allows the reader to understand the villagers" behaviors about the missionaries. The setting contributed the novel's mood by this way, and it never changed except when Okonkwo fled to Mbante. In Mbante, Okonkwo's dream of earning more titles in his clan failed and he had to start a life over.