Assignment Example - Paper 2
Write a 5 page paper that makes an argument on one of the following questions:
Chinua Achebe has stated that he wrote Things Fall Apart as a corrective of the European colonialist world view. In what ways can you see Achebe's novel as posing a challenge to the perspectives European colonizers?
In what ways does Achebe's book idealize Ibo society, and in what ways does he seem critical of it? (Is Achebe's fictional work "history"? What advantages and disadvantages might Achebe's approach offer to the study of African history?)
What role does gender play in Achebe's narrative? Are women presented as oppressed, or is their position in Ibo society more complex? Is there a hint of how these gender roles may have been transformed by colonialism?
Was European industrialization largely a matter of economics, or was it merely the byproduct of political conditions and social and cultural transformations in the 18th and 19th centuries?
Remember to cite any outside sources (although outside research is unnecessary and not recommended), and to allow time for proof-reading and editing.