Things Fall Apart has helped me learn some interesting characteristics of Ibo society, such as how their economy works, what kinds of human characteristics are valuable to them, and the kinds of food that they eat. Things Fall Apart show many interactions between families and friends. Often in these meetings, there are negotiations and ritual greetings. When someone walks into your house, that person often comes with, "a kola nut, some alligator pepper and a lump of white chalk" (Achebe 6). In Ibo, the people pride themselves on being more civilized, where as other neighboring villages, "haggle and bargain [for a wife] as if they were buying a goat or a cow in the market" (73). When Ibo men are negotiating, they often use sticks, representative of a certain amount of cowries. Many of the Ibo people are able to climb the social ladder by having more wives and yams. In the Ibo society, social hierarchy is not based as much on how many cowries you have, but how successful you were in the past years' harvests. The Ibo people strongly value hard work, because it often means making more money when planting and harvest come around. They also value a person who is strict, but not ruthless, and someone who has respect for one's elders. The Ibo people have an interesting negotiation format and eat and dress very differently than modern Americans, yet we have very similar moral values.
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