In the book entitled Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the conflict of tradition versus change presents itself in many unique ways. This book is set in the late nineteenth century in a clan in Nigeria and tells the story of the Umuofia people’s customs and culture. Also, how they react when the English come into their land and start to change their traditions. The Umuofia people resist change at first but as time went on their traditions slowly change due to the influence of the white missionaries. The white missionaries establish a church in Umuofia and the Umuofia people begin to convert to Christianity. However, some of the Umuofian people resist change and a conflict between the white missionaries and the Umuofia people begin to arise. …show more content…
The white missionaries arrive in Umuofia during Okonkwo’s exile in Mbanta. When Okonkwo returns and sees how his home changing, Okonkwo feels devastation because of how much different Umuofia has become. The quote, “He mourned for the clan, which he saw breaking and falling apart” (183), best exemplifies how Okonkwo feels when he returns to Umuofia. The white missionaries change all the traditional aspects of Umuofia in different ways that include trying to convert people to Christianity which is away from the native religion in Umuofia and establishing a modernized court system. These all contribute to how the Umuofia people change, but some Umuofians resist change while others embrace …show more content…
The people in Umuofia who resist change do so because they want to keep their traditions and not have them be corrupt by the missionaries. Also, it is human nature for people to not want change. An example is when Okonkwo resists change because he loses his power and place within the clan when the white missionaries come. This is disastrous in the eyes of Okonkwo, who is a man that loves power. Other people resist change because they cling on to their native religious beliefs and do not want to convert over to Christianity. For example, when the white men ask to a build a church on the clan’s land, the clan intends to deceive them by giving them a piece of land that they view as “cursed.” This shows that the clan wants to indirectly curse in an attempt to kill the white men. When the white men start to gain many supporters, the clan does not want to change their traditions so they go to a meeting in order to discuss what to do. At the meeting, one of the clansmen says “We who are here this morning have remained true to our fathers, but our brothers have deserted us and joined a stranger to soil their fatherland” (203). This quote shows that the clan is very angry and feels betrayal by their own people who have joined the white men. The clan wants to go to war with the white men: however, before anything can be done, five messengers appear and Okonkwo gets very angry and
They then began to weaken their defences against the Christians, as their faith had been tested several times, and had failed on all occasions. The Ibo people, at this point, had given up, and the Christians were victorious over the village and its clan. By forcing the Umuofians to question their religion, the Christians were able to successfully take over the village. They first challenged the Ibo religion by telling the villagers that their gods were not real.
The men that come to Umuofia destroy the cultural balance of faith and religion that encompasses the native people in Africa. People in Umuofia depend strongly on the ancestors and gods in their culture. It is their tradition and their beginning, from which they govern their lives. Even the priestess that serves the god Agbala, "...was full of the power of her god, and she was greatly feared" (16). Without the stronghold of customs and traditions, only chaos exists. Peace, trust, and knowledge are thrown off when the new religion of Christianity is introduced. When the missionary explains that:
... a meeting, Okonkwo, knowing that his clansmen would do nothing to drive the white men away form their villages, killed a messenger. He then went home and committed suicide.
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.
Through out the novel Thing Fall Apart, there are many situations have shown societal changes, and those changes always have influences to the characters. One of the specific societal change presented in the novel is the arrival of the white men and Christianity in Umuofia. White men and Christianity missionaries have arrived Umuofia and started to expand their religion. The arrival of Christianity and white men is consider as a societal change because the white men and the new religion have a lot of influence in Umuofia, they trade, built church, school and hospital, they also debates and discuss about religious with the local citizens. Many local citizens, like Okonkwo, rejected white man and Christianity at the first place, they even killed the white man who was the first one to arrive the clan. But slowly they
Both pieces of literature present the ways cultures can break apart both from within and from outside forces. In Things Fall Apart, the Igbo tribes have a strong culture and tradition, working together to produce crops, trade currency, and form agreements. When the European missionaries come to Umuofia, they spark a divide between the villagers and the cultural traditions that the Igbo have embraced for centuries. The Igbo perform many ceremonies to worship and respect the gods in their culture. When the missionaries come to the villages, they tell stories of one true god that rules over all life. This confuses many members of the community and leads them to look into the new religion. he Igbo start to choose whether they wish to continue to follow their culture and or embrace the new Christianity that has been presented by the missionaries. This provides evidence that it is the force of the white missionaries coming from outside that leads to the dividing and breaking up of their culture. The action of choosing one side over the other creates the consequence of mistrust between age-old traditionalists and the new-age converts. This places families, friends, and neighbors in a cultural divide based on what they believe in. This situation
In Things Fall Apart, the missionaries institute their own system of government which completely ignores the laws and structures that are already in place in Umuofia. Using this new system, the white men punish the clan leaders based on their own laws from their own country and declare “that must not happen in the dominion of our queen, the most powerful ruler in the world” (Achebe 194), implying that the citizens of Umuofia are subject to England’s system of justice and queen. Thus, these missionaries arrive with selfish intentions to expand their own power, rather than to help the natives develop their civilization and autonomy. Furthermore, the white men even declare that Umuofia belongs to the queen, which serves to usurp the existing society. These colonizers, exemplified by those in the Heart of Darkness, continually demonstrate a lack of respect for the natives by asserting, “get him hanged!
Okonkwo’s determination to succeed in life and to not fail leads to his fatal downfall in the end of the novel. His inability to adapt to colonization and his failure to follow the morals of many of the morals of the Ibo culture also are an important key leading to his downfall. Okonkwo was willing to go to war against the missionaries, with or without the clan. He made it clear that he believed the missionaries were in the wrong for trying to change Umuofia. Since the clan wanted no part in the war with the missionaries, Okonkwo took action into his own hands and murdered the head messenger. During the killing of the messenger, Okonkwo had a moment of realization: “He knew that Umuofia would not go to war. He knew because they had let the other messengers escape. They had broken into tumult instead of action” (Achebe 205). Okonkwo finally understands that he doesn’t have support from his fellow clansmen anymore and he feels as if he loses his place in society. Instead of backing up Okonkwo and his decision to murder the messenger, the clan stood in both confusion and disorder and questioned, “ ‘Why did [Okonkwo] do it?’ ” (Achebe 205). Okonkwo’s impulsiveness causes the clansmen to question Okonkwo’s violent actions against the messenger. Throughout the entire novel, Okonkwo struggles to accept the missionaries and the changes that they
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.
Okonkwo believes that the Europeans should be forced to leave Umuofia, but others disagree with the leader because of the goods they have provided. The Europeans affected Umuofia and the rest of the nine villages by bringing in their ideas and values before learning about the African
Upon an initial reading of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, it is easy to blame the demise of Okonkwo’s life and of the Umofia community on the imperialistic invasions of the white men. After all, Okonkwo seemed to be enjoying relative peace and happiness before then. He did have a few mishaps; one of them resulted in him being exiled for eight years. Nonetheless, he returned to his home town with high spirits and with prospects of increased success. However, everything has changed. The white men have brought with them a new religion and a new government. Okonkwo’s family falls apart. The men in his village lose their courage and valor; they do not offer any resistance to the white men. Consequently, Okonkwo kills himself in disgrace and Umofia succumbs to the white men. However, the white men are not the only people responsible for demise of Umofia. The Igbo culture, particularly their views on gender roles, sows the seed of their own destruction. By glorifying aggressive, manly traits and ignoring the gentle, womanly traits, Umofia brings about its own falling apart.
As you see, Okonkwo was a deprived man after hearing about the whites expanding their beliefs and customs to Umuofia. Being unable to contain it, he had no choice but to give in. Okonkwo wanted to go to war and fight the invading Europeans, but he soon realized that he was the only one hungry for war. “I shall fight alone if I choose” (Achebe 201). Being the only one seeking for revenge, he had no choice but to behead the head messenger who was trying to end a clan meeting. Letting the other messengers escape, Okonkwo’s visual was the truth. “He knew that Umuofia would not go to war” (Achebe 205). Everything that he stood for was now distant. His once powerful and running clan was now weak and resistant to fight off enemies. What was the point to live when everything else had failed him and he could do nothing to resolve it? He struggled with the changes occurring in the tribe. He was known as a very strong and honorable tribesman, but when the whites arrived promoting Christianity and other tribe members began to change as a result, even his own son, he could not bear the change. While viewing the others as weak, like his father, he tries to remain strong against change however he is the only one. Killing the messenger was the last attempt to try and save the tribe from the influence of the white man. Seeing the others not join in his action, he loses hope and in desperation ends his life
Okonkwo was not a bit pleased upon the coming of the missionaries. The missionaries changed Okonkwo’s train of thought and the way in which he presented himself. In reaction to Enoch’s crime of unmasking an egwugwu, Okonkwo and the other leader of Umofia make an attack by destroying the missionaries’ church. Okonkwo had other intentions and had advised multiple violent actions even to the extent of killing the missionaries. Although, the group had only ended up burning down their church. As Okonkwo had stated, “He knew that he was a fierce fighter, but that year he had been enough to break the heart of a lion.”(pg.20) Okonkwo was following his own advice because he was fighting for what he believed in and for what he knew was wrong. The missionaries had changed the outlook upon life for Okonkwo. He was no longer the sweet loving and caring individual in which he was upon returning. He n...
Through most of the novel, Okonkwo, his family, and the villagers all experience this struggle. As the missionaries continue to live in the Evil Forest, they repeatedly gain village converts as a result of the Igbo beliefs constantly being proven inaccurate. Okonkwo’s son, Nwoye converts because of confusion in what his people believe, and Okonkwo changes drastically as a person because of the missionaries’ arrival and actions. 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; that clearly takes a toll on
Throughout the world there are many conflicts. It has been that way all throughout history. Since the dawn of man, there have been many conflicts. These conflicts led to wars and changed the lives of many forever. Almost all of the conflicts are due to discrimination by different groups of people. Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart, provide examples of discrimination between groups of people. The story focuses on the life and suicide of Okonkwo, a well-respected clansman of Umuofia clan. He struggles between the traditional strong masculine culture in a Nigerian Village and the new customs brought by white missionaries. The book shows the disastrous effects of prejudice and intolerance leading readers to reflect on the similarities of present and history. Achebe’s, Things Fall Apart, strongly represents the vast amount of bigotry between those of different genders, religious groups, and social statuses throughout history.