"Things Fall Apart"

Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart” is very different from the things we have read so far. It is written more like a book I would read for fun rather than some scholarly article. The turn towards the end of Part 1 was totally unexpected for me. I found Okonkwo to be a very interesting and complex character, and I could see him as both a hero and a villain at the same time. He was a hero for his stereotypical rags to riches story, but the way he treats his wives and children would be seen in our culture as more or less villainous. I really enjoyed how the plot seemed so straightforward, but there was underlying tension and foreshadowing. As I was reading it I wondered how the story would be taken differently in different cultures because it seems that, from my reading experience at least, people put their own culture’s standards onto the characters consciously or subconsciously. How would this story be viewed in the country and village that was its setting? Would there be as much tension?