Polytheism In Things Fall Apart

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Many cultures tend to clash greatly, and an example is the idea of monotheism and polytheism. This is the culture clash of western ideas and the Ibo culture in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. The Ibo culture was a polytheistic tribe that experienced the influence of Christianity by the Western people. One of the main characters, Okonkwo, was not pleased with the new missionaries ideas. The clan had their set beliefs and was not inclined to open up to a new influence. Okonkwo saw as though his clan was civilized, and there was no need to change matters. Unlike a few outliers, Okonkwo was one of the many that simply saw things begin to fall apart with the influence of western culture, as he began to question who he really was and what he …show more content…

Black was black and white was white for Okonkwo. He held on to the principles he had learned as he grew up, as well as learning to be a man that was a polar opposite of his father. The new ideas the missionaries brought into the Ibo culture took Okonkwo for an emotional toll. They spoke of so many new ideas that Okonkwo had never imagined. He grew up with the idea of a strong male as the head of the house. He was to provide for his family and be the dominant individual to a submissive wife. "No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children (and especially his women) he was not really a man." (579) Okonkwo was such a powerful and respected man in the Ibo clan. He even won over one of his wives in a wrestling match by this strength and power. He was a man that refused to be weak or …show more content…

As soon as his beliefs were questioned, Okonkwo was distraught. He lacked meaning to himself once everything he had worked to hard for seemed to fall apart and shatter. “Okonkwo’s head was bowed in sadness as Obierika told him these things. “Perhaps I have been away too long,” Okonkwo said, almost to himself. “But I cannot understand these things you tell me. What is it that has happened to our people? Why have they lost the power to fight?” “Have you not heard how the white man wiped out Abame?” asked Obierika. “I have heard,” said Okonkwo. “But I have also heard that Abame people were weak and foolish. Why did they not fight back? Had they no guns and machetes? We would be cowards to compare ourselves with the men of Abame” (Achebe 1904). Okonkwo viewed the acceptance of the new ideas as vulnerability and that the new ideas were destroying his people. He measured people by their physical strength only, and any emotion displayed was thought of as weakness. “Okonkwo was deeply grieved . And it was not just a personal grief. He mourned for the clan, which he saw breaking up and falling apart, and he mourned for the warlike men of Umuofia, who had so unaccountably become soft like women” (Achebe 1991). Okonkwo was thinking that the clan was falling apart, just because it didn't fight the missionaries. His heart was so hard and so determined not to be like his father that when the

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