There are four levels on which Things Fall Apart can be read and interpreted: (1) the plot line; (2) Okonkwo's tragedy; (3) the impact of the white man on a specific African society; and (4) the universal effect of cultural change.
The plot line: This is the simplest level of interpretation, though all other levels depend upon it. What is involved in this reading of the text is purely an understanding of what actions take place in the novel. Strictly speaking, as indicated previously, there is a difference between story and plot. The story is a recounting of a sequence of events while the plot is the telling of a series of actions that is structured to make a predetermined point. As the English novelist E. M. Forster has said. "'The king died and then the queen died' is a story. 'The king died, and then the queen died of grief' is a plot." Thus, the story of Things Fall Apart is merely the underlying tale of village life in Umuofia just prior to and just after the arrival of the white man. The plot, on the other hand, is Achebe's arrangement of the events so that they reflect on the nature of his main character, who reacts to what is happening.( Nnoromele, Patrick C.)
Okonkwo's tragedy: The second level of meaning grows naturally out of the plot line. Achebe focuses on Okonkwo as an individual so that we can see how the plot-line events affect him directly. Okonkwo's tragedy is that he is caught in the transition between the tribal life of his forefathers and the culture that supplants it, the culture introduced by the invading white man. Part of Okonkwo's inability to adjust is engendered by his reaction to his father's weaknesses, bringing in elements of irony and Aristotelian tragedy.
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