The document discusses how Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness portrayed Africans in a stereotypical way as savages, which prompted Chinua Achebe to write Things Fall Apart from the perspective of native Africans to show them as members of a thriving society, countering Conrad's negative portrayal. Things Fall Apart follows Okonkwo's life as he strives for prestige in his community, but his attempts to protect his culture from European missionaries ultimately backfire and perpetuate stereotypes in the eyes of European readers due to his own rigid mentality and violent behavior.