Things Fall Apart Missionaries

Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart gives an insight into how the Igbo society falls apart due to western ideas brought by missionaries. Achebe uses the main character, Okonkwo, to give the readers something to empathize with during which he and the Igbo community face European influence through missionaries for the first time. These Western ideas and beliefs challenge Igbo culture and clash with the cultural identities of the Igbo society. One greatly affected by this is Okonkwo. He gives a sense of what it felt like for these Nigerian tribes to undergo colonization and conversion from Igbo customs to Christianity. Okonkwo essentially represents the tradition in the book, because he was an important and powerful figure in Umuofia. Christianity challenged his sense of identity, not in religion, but in his tribe.

Okonkwo despised Unoka because of the shame he brought to the family, by not being able to provide them with enough food and wasted away his interest in music. Unoka also disliked war, which was thought of as a great honor and pride to serve in a war. He lacked the responsibilities of masculinity and as soon as he died, Okonkwo did everything in his willpower to become the man he never was; "And indeed he was possessed by the fear of his father's contemptible life and shameful death," (Achebe 9) he let his father It was difficult for Okonkwo to start from nothing because he hadn't inherited a wife, a barn, nor a title from his father, "But in spite of these disadvantages, he had begun even in his father's lifetime to lay the foundations of a prosperous future," (Achebe 9) but he did achieve his success by becoming the best wrestler out of all the 9 neighboring villages. Okonkwo grew up to be a strong man, with beautiful wives and children, and two barns full of yams for his family; the complete opposite of his