In the book Things Fall Apart Okonkwo received his neighbor Okoye into his home; they had their usual greeting of shaking hands and placing goat skin to sit on the ground. Soon after Okonkwo arrives and tells him “I have Kola” (94), Okoye replies and says “He who brings Kola brings life”(94). This displays the importance of Kola in the culture of the Africans in this book. Okoye’s reply towards the Kola shows how much it is valued. Yams are a very valuable possession to have in Umofia, so the villagers took the planting it very seriously. During the planting season Unoka says he “Before I put any crop n the earth, I sacrifice a cock to Ani, the owner of all the land. I also kill a cock to Ifejoku the god of yams” (34). It is a custom for to make sacrifices to gods before planting anything. Achebe uses Unoka’s respect to the gods’ demands to show how much respect they Africans have and how important their customs are. The African people in this book are very superstitious when it comes to death, they take it very serious because it is not done properly there can be bad consequences. In the book Ogbuefi Ezeudu says “They have that Custom in Obodoani. If a man dies at this time he is not buried but cast into the evil forest…. They throw away large numbers of men and women without burial” (50). This shows
Things Fall Apart. Such an intriguing title, because everything will eventually fall apart. Chinua Achebe's choice of a title may lead some to confusion, because throughout his book many things fall apart, from Okonkwo's personal life achievements and emotions to the town of Umuofia as its people split, and perhaps the biggest thing to fall apart, the very culture of the Igbo people. One could focus on any one of these topics and trace the complexity of it's fall from previous glory to the eventual ruin at the end of Achebe's novel. Studying the overall book provides a much more interesting conclusion, however, than simply tracking the different ways people or the town change, as instead it is possible to gain insight into Achebe's goals in writing this complex, tragic story. Achebe uses the details of Okonkwo's personal life falling apart and of the town of Umuofia's struggles to maintain it's traditions as metaphors for the falling apart of Igbo culture as it was known before the Europeans came.
A small village in Nigeria, devoted to the sacred customs inherited over many years, dramatically revolutionizes as the white men from Europe invade Umuofia. Umuofia consists of a religion called Igbo, that the people in the community dote towards. Okonkwo, a man of leadership in Umuofia, apprehends the strife the white men bear. Hardship after hardship, Okonkwo subsists to the challenging transformation of his village. Chinua Achebe suggests that the missionaries promoting Christianity in his novel, Things Fall Apart, guides the Igbo society by providing refuge to the outcasts and bringing wealth to the village, but also destroys the society by decimating community.
...e on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart" (Achebe, 176). The village of Umuofia held to backward laws and values that "destroy innocent children" (Achebe, 146). The tribe's innocence had to die in order for those who survived to mature. Although Umuofia's peak of innocence may have been when Ikemefuna was handed over to the village, but its maturity would come through the death of Ikemefuna, the tribe's innocence, at the hands of those the tribe called "father." Things Fall Apart clearly illustrates the faults of the African system and way of life through "the series of catastrophes which end with his [Okonkwo's and Umuofia's] death" (Carroll).
It is common knowledge that Africa has always been represented as a continent that is full of wild savages. It is perceived as fact that the people within this continent are running around with spears and live in small huts. The people who actually believe this are ignorant to the truth that Africa is a very large continent. It has many different cultures that deserve to be respected in their own right. These different cultures have their own laws, their own religion, and their own art. In Things Fall Apart, Umuofia is explained extensively. The whole first half of the novel goes into great detail of all that makes the culture so great. These people have a well developed religion, rules that they all follow, and even their own justice system. These people are very civilized in their own individual way. The disconnect comes in when, even though they have all the same elements as western civilization, they are are so different that those difference are considered unworthy. In the novel, the missionaries that visit Umuofia constantly ignore the people’s custom and consider those customs savage. One of the missionaries blatantly makes this clear when discussing their religion and says, “that they worshipped false gods, gods of wood and stone” (Achebe 145). From the outside, yes, it does look like all these people worship inanimate objects. What Achebe tries so hard to show is that the religion that the people of Umuofia followed is way more complicated than that. Their religion, along with their whole culture, is very complex and needs half a book to just scrape the top layer of it. Many of their beliefs even mirror many early Christian ideas. These people pray to their ancestors who will in return talk to the Gods they worship. This is parallel to how Catholics pray to saints as an indirect way to speak to God. The core of
Nigerian Ibo culture in the village of Umoufia. Like the Ibo, many other nations are strongly rooted to
In Things Fall Apart the Igbo village Umuofia fell apart in two distinct fashions. The first aspect of Igbo culture to break down was the village's spirituality, which was led by the arrival of the Christian mission. Second, this mission acted as a channel to allow a new government to infiltrate Umuofia and challenge the laws and customs that held together the former Igbo way of life.
The Igbo are deeply patriarchal and violence is not uncommon. This male-dominance is inherent in the clan's language; the word for a man who ...
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.
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.
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.
With a socially imposed and personal devotion to attain a highly regarded status in his clan, Okonkwo’s life was one that valued traditional authority, customs, and kinship. As a protagonist, Okonkwo’s story exemplifies the altering role of the state as the marching boots of colonialism enter his village, Iguedo. In Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart, he illustrates the societal life of the Umuofia clan prior to the arrival of and the encounter with early colonizers - offering an Igbo account of the transformation of local institutions. Once wielded by elders and the spiritually divine, the power of control fell into the hands of foreigners. Worship of ancestors, the supreme deity Chikwu, and other Earth gods transferred to the God revealed in the Bible. The interactions between the institutions of rule, belief, environmental management, and trade are each delicately reliant on each other, so that in Iguedo the ability to rule fails to exist without belief, religious believes are derived from the environment, and the mercy of environmental conditions dictates agricultural trade. Through the life and death of Okonkwo, the novel presents how the experience of the Igbo and their interaction with the state witnessed unquestionable change.
There are many different religions in the world but they are all capable of doing similar things. Religion plays a significant role in the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. In this book religion is important to the people of Umuofia ,which is the village where the protagonist, Okonkwo lives. The people of the village believed there was only one religion ,and when another religion was introduced to them they would not believe in it. This religion was Christianity. During the novel the power of religion both guides and destroys the society of Umuofia.
The Ibo’s government is administered by the nine egwugwu who are ancestral spirits that represent each village of the clan. As large crowds of the Ibo tribe would gather on the village
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a story about personal beliefs,customs, and also a story about an identity confliction. There is struggle between family, culture, and religion of the Ibo tribes. It shows how things fall apart when these beliefs and customs are challenged and how a personal identity changes for a man. The novel concerns the life of Okonkwo, a leader and local wrestling champion throughout the villages of the Ibo ethnic group of Umuofia in Nigeria, Africa, his three wives, and his children. Throughout the novel, Okonkwo is internally challenged and slowly becomes someone that is no longer recognizable by his friends or his family. When Okonkwo faces change, his identity starts to fade.