Development

Before I began reading, a friend of mine who had already read the book told me it was about missionaries from England taking over an African clan. Even though that is what the novel is generally about, the missionaries don't appear until at least halfway through the novel. The process of things falling apart happens before the missionaries arrival, albeit the steps are subtle. In a way, the missionaries were merely the straw that broke the camel's back. Achebe develops Okonkwo's life to show that things fall apart little by little until everything builds up and ultimately snaps.