Every since reading my independent study book, "The Sound and the Fury," I've looked at literature a somewhat of a new light in terms of how the narrative style can work to further advocate a message or motif within a novel. As it so happened, I was searching for supplemental information on Achebe a couple of nights ago and I came across something interesting. "Things Fall Apart" definitely seems to be in 3rd Person, omniscient, allowing us to see into the minds and perspectives of multiple characters. Now this might be a bit of a stretch. We've established before hand that African culture is in no way one single thing, in fact African culture is technically incorrect in this sense. It's not homogenous. Likewise, neither is the narrative style of Achebe's work in that it gives multiple outlooks from different characters.
Here's one of the websites I remembered when I was doing my research: http://www.africa.ufl.edu/asq/v4/v4i3a1.htm
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Interesting point. Even though the narrative style of Things Fall Apart allows us to see mostly the inner workings of Okonkwo’s mind and his personal motivations and deepest emotions, we also hear some thoughts, and emotions from other characters like Nwoye and Okonkwo’s wives. Because narration gives the reader different attitudes and ideas that the characters don’t communicate to each other, we see a multitude of opinions, desires, and emotions that drive the characters. It gives a deeper meaning to the Ibo proverb “When one thing stands, another stands beside it.” There are always different opinions and attitudes towards things and the narrative style allows us to see that.
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