Character & Setting/ Achebe

1) The Characters in my problem are probably myself and the people i interact with, the people i meet that may have an effect on how i view the world or people in general. But, the main character is myself. My probelm is very personal to me. I have control over who i choose to become. although i may meet people through out my life that will affect my beliefs, in the end i am responsible for myself. if i want to do something or be something, i am fully capable of making it happen. the Setting of my problem really could be anywhere i go, anyplace where something significant may happen to alter my point of view.

2a) The monster in Achebe is probably the white colonizers. I may not completely agree with everything in Okonkwo's culture but it is still his own as well as the rest of the people in his tribe. All cultures have aspects of them that may be seen as strange or even wrong to others but this does not make it ok for any one group to try and change another, thinking their way is the "best". culture is something that is passed down and is apart of ones idetitly. For the people of tribe to lose this culture is the same thing as losing themsleves, forgetting everything that makes them who they are and just succuming to what ever the colonizers put on them.
2b) Achebe does not confirm Rousseau's Savage. Rousseau explains his savage as man in his natural state. his savage is simple, with no hidden agendas. just simple desires and needs. Also Rousseau's savage is man alone, how he would act if there was no real society to poison him. In "things fall apart" there is still a society that affects the people within it. Okonkwo and the other Characters are all very much apart of their community. This feeling of community does make each person better as well as worse.