One way to discuss Things Fall Apart is to look at it as a novel of continuity and discontinuity. While the Ibo culture remains intact and undisturbed there is a sense of continuity. Okonkwo makes mistakes and suffers the consequences but is always able to cope. The social fabric of his people ensures that he is socially intelligible. He knows who he is.
When the English come, this continuity is broken. At one point, the notion of a fraying social fabric is addressed directly.
“The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.”
The various rituals depicted in the text function as a source of social intelligibility, defining the Ibo culture. The narration of Okonkwo's internal life -- his fears of failure and ambitions of attaining status -- are firmly rooted in the values of the Ibo and successfully express this protagonist's reliance on his community for an identity (and for the achievement of self-value).
Okonkwo has no identity outside of his culture. This idea is developed with subtle sensitivity as Okonkwo experiences a distressing exile within the Ibo culture. His final break is almost predictable given the inevitable loss of identity and social intelligibility that the English presence brings to the villages.
"Colonialism strains the capacity of Igbo culture to adapt, and it is clear that Okonkwo’s death is a sudden and dramatic paradigm for the gradual but inevitable death of traditional Igbo culture" .
The societal changes that occur after the arrival of the English in the Ibo region are addressed on several levels in the text. One of the more subtle ways the shift is emphasized is in the narrative style of the text.
The style of the novel -- episodic and formulated like a string of narrative beads -- serves to emphasize the importance of ritual and customs to social continuity and intelligibility. There is no single, linear story-arc to orient the novel. Instead, there is a series of episodes in the life of one character (Okonkwo) that explicitly reflect the power of the social customs to organize and regulate life in the villages.
On the level of style, Achebe's choices to present episodes in the life of Okonkwo and the life of his community instead of a linear story arc serves to underscore the idea that the individual comes to see his own life as a part of the continuous life of the village.
The life of the culture absorbs the life of the individual. In this way, the culture is the source of social intelligibility. Thus, when the values and customs of Umuofia are disrupted and challenged by the English, things do fall apart.
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