The constant change within the society is inevitable in every culture, ranging from traditional sense of social values to the law and condition of the land that people needs to obey by as time when on. And these changes within the culture can have significant impact on the perspective of the whole community and the mindset of an individual. We can see this in Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart” as the old Igbo culture clashing with the Missionaries’s ideals from the western world that leads to the dividing of the two culture and create this social barrier between them as one culture would often contradict with the other. This changes unfold to the reader through the eyes of the main character of the story, Okonkwo.
... of respect and appreciation for a different culture can take part in the downfall of the Igbo society.
Throughout the first part of the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe it shows readers how Igbo live their life and shows the traditions and culture of their people. In the second part of the book it starts to go into about how Western cultural imperialism comes in and tries to teach the Igbo people their culture, language, education and especially their religion. The influence that the missionaries bring to the Igbo culture is significance because they want the Africans to have the same views as them and for the ultimatum to take over the land that the Igbo people live on, so they can use and take their resources.
Throughout history, British imperialism has influenced many countries’ culture and heritage for the worse. The competition for resources and markets made empires colonize different parts of the world to systematically spread their influence and force the colonized to forget their heritage. One of the most important African writers, Chinua Achebe was strongly concerned with political and social effects of British colonialism in the Igbo society. His novel, Things Fall Apart, is not an exceptionally positive one, utilizing the story to delineate a pioneer control that enters and afterward realizes the demise of the Igbo society (How Does Chinua Achebe Portray Colonialism Using Things Fall Apart?essay). Achebe paints a picture of how the colonizers treat the colonized and to what the local people are forced to accustom to the new culture that was forced upon them. Throughout the whole book, you can see diverse impacts on the tribe and the connections between the white and dark man (Colonialism in Things Fall Apart). The constant question of "Does the white man understand our custom abou...
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is an African novel which happened in 19th Century. Achebe narrates the story mainly about Okonkwo’s whole life in one of the nine villages called Umuofia in Nigeria and the clashes as well as influences to the village from colonization of Europeans. The clashes include reactions and misconception after the first arrival of white people and the effect which missionaries bring about to the village from many aspects such as belief, family and culture. Beyond that, there are large amount of description of the background and details of the villagers’ daily lives are provided to readers for acquainting with Ibo culture. As a consequence, the changes which white people bring about to the village are vivid and unimaginable compared with their previous peaceful life. The conflicts generate from violence and misunderstanding between the Europeans and villagers with addition of colonial process among villages which lead to replacement of Christian domination rather than the Ibo culture.
Things Fall Apart is about the tragic fall of Okonkwo our main character and the Igbo culture. Okonkwo is a respected leader within the Igbo community of Umunfia in eastern Nigeria. He first gets respect within the village by defeating Amalinze the Cat in a wrestling contest. Okonkwo is determined to become a powerful and wealthy man unlike his father who was weak. Within the community, Unoka was considered a failure and a laughingstock he was looked upon as a woman who had no property to call his own. He eventually died a shameful death and left numerous debts. Okonkwo despises and resents his father gentle ways he decides to overcome the shame that he feels for his father’s weakness by becoming what he considers to be “manly”. He dominates his wives and children by being insensitive and controlling. Over the years, Okonkwo becomes an extremely volatile man. For example beating his youngest wife Ojiugo for accidently forgetting to prepare the afternoon meal for his family. Things begin to fall apart soon with the arrival of Christian missionaries who spread their religion and culture throughout the land and. Colonialism is a theme that’s constantly addressed throughout the book and is to blame for the fall of the Igbo culture and Okonkwo.
The widely known novel named Things Fall Apart was written by a man by the name of Chinua Achebe. Things Fall Apart represents the cultural roots of the Igbos in order to provide self-confidence, but at the same time refers them to universal principles which vitiate their destructive potential (Rhoads 61). As the reader continues through the narrative and learn more in depth about the characters a sense of pride, trust, and faith in history come into view. Seeing Achebe’s duty as a writer in a new nation as showing his people the dignity that they had lost during the colonial period, he sets out to illustrate that before the European colonial powers entered Africa, the Igbos had a philosophy of great depth and value and beauty, that they had poetry and, above all, they had dignity (Rhoads 61). Yet, with the introduction of colonialism the characters must learn to accept and get used to a new culture and set of beliefs or face termination from society. The novel focuses on the troubles of African cultures and their struggle to adjust to colonialism. As the novel progresses, one can also observe the influence of religion over time and how it has changed in many societies. Although many readers would describe the colonialism in Africa as something normal and something you can not prevent; a closer look of this novel would suggest that the needs of human nature to expand their values and beliefs upon others causes ancient cultures to evolve or fade out of existence. Things Fall Apart in part is a statement of what the future might be if Nigeria were to take advantage of the promising aspects of its past and to eliminate the unpromising ones (Rhoads 62).
Towards the middle chapters of the book Achebe and his family have been exiled from their land due to Achebe’s actions against the tribe. Upon returning to the tribe seven years later they have noticed that a different type of people have been living in their tribe. “The white man” Okonkwo and his tribe call them, have come from a land called England to colonize parts of Africa. Through this process of colonization the people in Okonkwo’s tribe and family have been segregated and falling apart figuratively. Both negative and positive effects of colonialism is an overarching theme throughout the novel.
They had a vibrant culture which brought the people together like weddings, festivals,and storytelling. The author gave the reader a sense of how the culture of the igbo people.They had their culture y going for years untill the colonial master 's came this lead to a change for them and things started to fall apart. There was a clash of culture and this clash made Children abandon their culture and their community which they grew in to join a community that was filled with promise of change and suffocation they felt with their culture and tradition. Okonkwo son Nwoye for the first time went against his fathers wish and felt free again after his brother from another mother was killed. The killing of babies and throwing them into the evil forest also stop.. The elders called the missionaries "fool 's"While the missionaries judged them and became the judge over them by building a court district. This also lead to downfall of Okonkwo he wanted to keep his tradition going and bring his community back but he felt like a looser. He was also scared of loosening his title therefore he concluded he was going to die like an unknown weak person like his father. This reminded me of when We were discussing the book in class this question came to my mind did the "disintegration" of the society lead to the chaos of what happened in the society? In high when my
Culture makes us who we are. Each individual has their own culture from their experiences in life and is developed from societal influences. The various cultures around the world influence us in different ways which we experience at least once in our lifetime. There are occasions, especially in history, where cultures clash with one another. For instance, the English colonization in Africa changed their culture. Chinua Achebe, the author of Things Fall Apart, portrayed this change in the Igbo people’s society, especially through the character Okonkwo in the village of Umuofia; the introduction of Western ideas challenged him. In the novel Things Fall Apart, the author Chinua Achebe introduces to us Okonkwo whose character’s response to the
Achebe also wrote Umuofia to have an entire week of peace, described as “‘...we should observe a week in which a man does not say a harsh word to his neighbor. We live in peace with our fellows to honor our great goddess of the earth...’” (Achebe 30). Through this week of peace, a Western reader’s mindset of the early people of Africa being part of a warring, uncivilized culture is changed and one may realize that this is a forward thinking peace that does not exist in most modern day societies. The peaceful side of the Ibo culture is shown, even if Okonkwo and Umuofia are known throughout the book as being harsh and battle loving. Even with all this evidence of the Ibo culture being similar or complementary to the culture of a Western society today, Achebe acknowledges that all cultures have their faults. Although the point is to show the good aspects of an African group that very few people realize, the Ibo culture is not sugarcoated to appease the reader. Many times there are customs and cultural norms that the characters think to be perfectly normal and humane, but one in modern day would consider them to be savage and cruel.
Chinua Achebe?s Things Fall Apart is a narrative story that follows the life of an African man called Okonkwo. The setting of the book is in eastern Nigeria, on the eve of British colonialism in Africa. The novel illustrates Okonkwo?s struggles, triumphs, and his eventual downfall, all of which basically coincide with the Igbo?s society?s struggle with the Christian religion and British government. In this essay I will give a biographical account of Okonwo, which will serve to help understand that social, political, and economic institutions of the Igbos.
Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart is a powerful novel about the social changes that occurred when the white man first arrived on the African continent. The novel is based on a conception of humans as self-reflexive beings and a definition of culture as a set of control mechanisms. Things Fall Apart is the story of Okonkwo, an elder, in the Igbo tribe. He is a fairly successful man who earned the respect of the tribal elders. The story of Okonkwo’s fall from a respected member of the tribe to an outcast who dies in disgrace graphically dramatizes the struggle between the altruistic values of Christianity and the lust for power that motivated European colonialism in Africa and undermined the indigenous culture of a nation.
...this, Achebe is able display the African culture for what it truly was about. As a result, the reader begins to understand more about the Igbo culture. With a greater understanding of what the culture is truly about; the reader is able to start drawing small connections between Igbo and European societies. The reader begins to care about the Igbo culture and just as this happens, the settlers appear and begin to slowly rip it all away. Because the reader is able to view the colonization process through eyes of the colonized, a greater understanding of process of colonization is able to be obtained.
In the novel, Things Fall Apart, the effects of colonialism were extremely evident in the Igbo society. As the white Englanders moved into the native's land, their cultural values changed. Examples of these changes were evident in all aspects of the Igbo people's lives, in their religion, family life, children, and the dead. Many of the Igboians were upset by the colonialism of their society, but in the end they were completely incapable of doing anything to reverse the changes that had already taken place in their society.