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Things Fall Apart Essay 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. The Igbo culture is one that is based off different Gods based on nature and ancestors, how much …show more content…
The western missionaries also bought a new faith and realigion to the people which started to change many of the villages in Africa all together. Most missionaries came to this country with the idea of just helping the Igbo see what was right. Instead they ended up almost forcing or imposing mainly their religion and education upon the Igbo people. This happened in the book as well when they tried to burn down the shriens of the Igbo people’s gods. The head missionary, Mr. Brown, relized that instead of forcing something he should try a different approach like trying to understand the Igbo and using that to convert them. The missionaries basically used mainpulaiton to convert the Igbo people. Western imperialism were able to attract some of the Africans and convert them over to Christianity was by being able to show that they can bring just not religion but trade and money to their country and villages. They also attracted them by telling them what type of life they would be living if they converted over to Christianity, which was their way of taking over the community. In Things Fall Apart, the British colonist used force in order to give the support of the missionaries which was by any needs neccsary. When Okonkwo and some of the other villagers burned down the church they ended up being arrested and are suddenly under British rule and justice system at this point. The British command disrespect and treat those people that are in prison by shaving their heads and starving them for three whole days. They then forced this poor village to pay money in order for these men to be
The novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe has strong anti-imperialistic views. The epigraph and the title of the novel come from the opening stanza of William Butler Yeats’s poem The Second Coming. Things Fall Apart blissfully reflects the rise of imperialism as Britain and France take control of African territories. With the end of the Second World War, the German Empire collapses and the League of Nations takes it upon itself to take control of the former German colonies. Due to the implementation of British and French monarchies within these newly distributed territories, an anti-imperialistic stronghold arises within the colonies and cause for a civil unrest within the African territories.
Imagine if you would, to be in another culture, and someone who is unwanted, unwelcome has come into it and has caused it to crumble. You and your family are plunged into failure and your life is falling apart. These people, the missionaries, arrived from England to colonize Africa during the colonial period. There were many problems faced by the native people, most of whom were not about to drop all of their beliefs to adopt a foreigners customs. Such beliefs existed in the protagonist, Okonkwo, and are the roots of the challenges faced by Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart, in which the author, Chinua Achebe, writes of the challenges to Okonkwo's sense of identity. Western ideas have clashed with his sense of family, his ideas of gender, and position of leadership within the clan, which influences and forms the meaning of the book.
Imagine a group of foreign people invading your home, disavowing all your beliefs, and attempting to convert you to a religion you have never heard of. This was the reality for thousands and thousands of African people when many Europeans commenced the Scramble for Africa during the period of New Imperialism. A great fiction novel written by Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, highlights the responses to missionaries by African people. The African natives responded to the presence of white missionaries with submission to their desires, strategic responses to counteract them, and with the most disruptive response of violence.
In the book, Things Fall Apart, Achebe introduceses the Umofia people as a patricarchal with strong punishments. As the reader digs deeper into the book, the reader finds reasons and explainations for their style of living. Later in the story, Europeans started to colonize and convert the Ibo to christianity. The arrival of the settlers startled and changed the way of living for the Ibo. Most Europeans started to encourage or forcing the Ibo to convert to christianity. This declined the tribes original culture, while increasing christianity faith. The expansion of the missionariers change the life and views of various clan members. One in particular is Nwoye who converts to religions, opinion on the Ibo culture, and leaves his family behind.
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.
Many villagers were in support of the British, while others were reluctant to follow. One main social aspect that caused conflict in the country is the influence of religion. Similar to events in “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe, the British began to build missionary schools to spread Christianity. Nwoye, the son of the leader of Umuofia, joined the missionaries and converted to Christianity. However, this angered his father Okonkwo who did not support the colonization.
Culture: the beliefs, customs, arts, etc., of a particular society, group, place, or time. The idea of culture is stressed greatly, and at the same time distorted in the novel Things Fall Apart, written by Chinua Achebe. Through the main character and protagonist of the book, Okonkwo, we recognize the distortion of African culture that takes place within the Umuofia tribe when threatened by the intruding missionaries, and how this deeply affects Okonkwo, who would do whatever it takes to protect his tribe and the culture and traditions that lie within it. Okonkwo's character is collectively made up of his wealth and honor, his dedication to his tribe and everything that it withholds, his fiery personality, and lastly, his pride and courage. All of these traits are what make Okonkwo the prestigious man he is, and I believe his character is what makes the story truly tragic.
The Ibo culture is centered around gods and goddesses so the christian missionary come and show him a compelling new religion he is confused. For example the “words of the hymn were like the drops of frozen rain melting on the dry plate of the panting earth. Nwoye's callow mind was greatly puzzled.’’ (Achebe, 147) When Nwoye hears the hymns from the christian church he became “puzzled” because he started to question something he believed his whole life “Nwoye passed and repassed the little red-earth thatch building without summoning enough courage to enter.” (Achebe, 150) Nwoye was struggling to come to terms with his beliefs he was unsure and scared to do what his heart told him told him to do.
In Things Fall Apart, Achebe is able to express this embarkation with his division of the novel into two parts. The first part introduces Okonkwo along with his family’s beliefs and their origins, religions, etc. However, in the second part with the arrival of the Christian missionaries, the seeds of colonialism take root within the Ibo tribe and Okonkwo’s family, particularly in his son Nwoye. At the beginning, the missionaries are calm and peaceful. However, as time goes on they start to undergo their mission and start to denounce the Ibo’s gods as “false gods, gods of wood and stone.” At first, many are appalled and find their preaching laughable, but as they continue to thrive, people such as Nwoye begin to reach out. Because Nwoye is unable to forgive Okonkwo for his betrayal in killing his adopted brother, he converts to Christianity in an attempt to get back at his father for his crime. In addition, the missionaries’ hymn about brothers living in “darkness and fear,...
Almost every civilizat in the world was at one time colonized by another civilization with differing cultural beliefs. this is just the case in the Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart. were the Umuofia tribe in niger has being colonized by the british empire. which leds to the members of their tribe to either decide to learn to give into the brits and leave there way of life and accept the new christian teachings or have to fight to uphold their way of life that has kept order and peace in the village. by the end of the book many of the natives start rethinking their culture and join the christian church but the main character named Okonkwo all he is know is to work hard and slowly work his way up the umuofia's social ladder but it is now threatened by the the new christians teachings. at the end of the book okonkwo instead of fighting and knowing he will be unsuccessful he decides to kill himself because no matter how strong he is he knows that his fate was either kill himself or have all of his hard work to be
Cultural clashes result in unnecessary conflict. Several countries (European powers) including France, Great Britain, and Belgium imperialized Africa. They did this because of their demand for raw materials, need for markets, and their attempt to implement commerce, create civilization, and to bring in Christianity to be the primary religion. The clash between the Europeans and the Africans caused the Europeans to colonize Africa and to partition the continent, this partition plan is know as the Scramble for Africa. Chinua Achebe’s thesis regarding Colonial Africa in Things Fall Apart is an accurate portrayal of imperialism and Ibo culture to a high extent due to the religious accusations serving as catalysts for conflict, the use of the Christian, European missionaries attempting to conquer Africa, take the resources of the land, and convert multiple Ibo people to Christianity, and the display of cultural aspects (customs/traditions) about the Ibo people.
Firstly, the missionaries put their people in charge. The court of the “White man” had a district commissioner and court messengers. “The court messengers were greatly hated in Umuofia because they were foreigners and also arrogant and high-handed” (Page 174). These messengers treated the village people very terrible. They would beat the village people for doing certain cultural customs and calling them bad names. For example, many people of Umuofia would be placed in prison for throwing away twins, which was a cultural belief of the village. This can also be compared to the White Mans Burden. The Europeans forced their culture onto the Africans because they thought that their culture would make the Africans more civilized. Either way, the district commissioner and the court messengers basically took all the villages power from the elders and other elected leaders. Upon Okonkwo return to Umuofia, he could already tell how things had drastically changed. He mourned for his fellow clans’ men, because he said they were acting as women. They were no longer strong, fearless warriors but cowards. This is what is believed to lead Okonkwo to hang himself in the end of the
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.
In Things fall apart, Chinua Achebe showed us the richness of the Igbo traditional culture as well as the destruction of it through the activities of British missionaries. The appearance of Christianity on the Nigerian tribal land led to the disintegration of belief in the Igbo society, and made way for British colonization. Were the British the only cause of the destruction of the Igbo culture? The appearance of a new religion was not the sole reason for the loss of a tradition. The Igbo people also lost their culture because of many unreasonable conceptions in their spirituality.
There are many themes evident throughout Things Fall Apart, but one of the most prominent is the struggle between change and tradition, in the sense that some people change, but others don’t. Nwoye’s callow mind was greatly puzzled” (Achebe 89). Nwoye finds the missionaries hymn soothing, but it leaves him more confused about what he believes. Nwoye finally finds the courage to convert after a violent encounter with Okonkwo, “He went back to the church and told Mr. Kiaga that he had decided to go to Umuofia where the white missionary had set up a school to teach young Christians to read and write” (Achebe 93).