Language as a Tool of Social Identity and Power in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18416045

Abstract

This study examines language as a central tool for constructing social identity and power in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Using a qualitative research design, the study employs close textual reading and discourse-based analysis grounded in postcolonial theory and critical discourse analysis to examine key linguistic features in the novel. The analysis focuses on proverbs, ritual speech, gendered expressions, and narrative voice to show how language functions within indigenous Igbo society to establish authority, regulate gender roles, and reinforce communal hierarchy. The study also explores how colonial discourse, introduced through missionary and administrative language, undermines indigenous systems of meaning by redefining truth, legitimacy, and social order. The findings reveal that linguistic competence operates as a marker of wisdom and social status, while gendered language normalises patriarchal power and marginalises women’s voices. In contrast, colonial language functions as an ideological tool that asserts dominance through representation and discursive control rather than physical force. The study concludes that language in Things Fall Apart is an active social force that shapes identity and power relations and becomes a contested site during the colonial encounter.