Achebe's "Things Fall Apart" and Desai's "Clear Light of Day": Tension and Conflict Between Traditional and Modern Views How does the tension between traditional and modern views of the world play itself out in Achebe's and Desai's novels? In both Achebe's and Desai's novels, tension and conflict between the new and the old, traditional and modern are the strong undercurrents that move the story and the reader into an unconscious emotional uneasiness. In both novels, the backdrop and the story are engrossed in a struggle between two ....