Religion, Culture, And Conflict In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

715 Words2 Pages

Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is set towards the offset of the 1800s. The protagonist goes by the name Okonkwo. He has lived all his life resenting the poverty that his father represented and the man he was. In his adult life, Okonkwo becomes, extremely wealthy, but is strict and withdrawn from his wives and children. He commits a crime by killing a boy who was under his care during the non – violence week of peace. As a result, he is banished from the community. During the period of exile, white missionaries come to his village and spread the Christian gospel. Okonkwo is shocked by this conversion upon his return because his son is amongst those that were converted (Achebe, 179). Okonkwo constantly battles with the missionaries to the point where he murders one of them. His struggle with all the mixed emotions he goes through causes him to take his own life.
The salient ideas in the novel are religion, culture, and materialism. This three are the major struggles through which the protagonist encounters throughout his existence. The auxiliary points are sin, gender inequality, and communication. These ones play a less outstanding, but a substantial part in the protagonist’s life.
Okonkwo fights the issue of religion with every last bone in him. He feels that religion is a waste of the hard-earned position that the Ibo …show more content…

The Exile of Okonkwo for killing an innocent boy is one such instance. It shows that backward as they may have appeared to the white man, they valued and treasured the sanctity of human life. The Ibo Culture ensured that bad deeds did not go unpunished. Furthermore, the acceptance of strangers into their culture and living space illustrates that the Igbo cordial and civilized in their own sense. Even though they regarded the strangers with peculiarity, no harm was done to

Open Document