Achebe's Things Fall Apart

In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, there is a unified village in Nigeria called Umuofia. However, when the missionaries arrive on their land looking to promote their religion, this clan transforms and eventually falls apart. One day, Okonkwo, the center character of the story, accidentally kills a man and is banished from his homeland for seven years. During the seven years, the outcasts and even Nwoye, his eldest son, in Umuofia convert to Christianity, resulting in permanently divided families and a lack of unity in the society. This novel illustrates how Christianity both direct and shatter Umuofia. ROAD MAP? INTRO SENTENCE… When the missionaries ask for a plot of land to build their church on in Mbanta, Uchendu decides to give them a portion of the Evil Forest. In Ibo culture, the evil forest contains “alive sinister forces” and “powers of darkness” (148). However, after the expected

In Nwoye’s perspective, he does not believe Ikemefuna, the boy he looks up to as a brother, should be killed or that the twins should be abandoned by their mothers. As a result, when the missionaries arrive in Mbanta and sing a hymn to his people, Nwoye finds the words to be like “the drops of frozen rain melting on the dry palate of the painting earth” (147). Just as the thirsty earth found the rain to be sustenance, Christianity fills the empty spot in Nwoye’s heart about Ikemefuna’s death. However, Okonkwo does not let go of Nwoye’s throat until Uchendu counters at Okonkwo’s masculinity. As a result, Nwoye tells Mr. Kiaga that he is going to go to Umuofia and “never returns” (151) back to his father. Okonkwo does not realize that his own harshness is what drove his own son away and Nwoye In contrast, Mr. Kiaga and church provide him a way to escape his father. ...CONCLUDING