Things Fall Apart

Those lines begin a poem called "The Second Coming" by the Irish poet William Butler Yeats. Chinua Achebe took his title from those lines. BUt I cite them because they offer a hint into Richard Wright's Native Son as well. In fact, these lines might be a good way to open your essay. Analyze the conflict of both works. The conflict is derived from plot. What is happening to the protagonists, the main characters. Conflict …

…prior to the time setting of Native Son. What I mean is this: after the British take over Africa and assimilate the peoples, they will be setting up a world similar to that which Wright writes about -- where the Blacks and Whites are supposed to be culturally the same, with the same gods and goals, but where the whites rule and shut blacks off from the truer goals. You could use the word alienation.