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Cultural conflict when things fall apart
Cultural conflict when things fall apart
Cultural conflict when things fall apart
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In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Obierika and Okeke bring a peace to the community and themsel and religious lives around them, while Okonkwo and Enoch strike fear and confusion into the communities around them. Okeke and Obierika are from two different worlds but their balanced character makes them similar to one another. Okeke is of Igbo descent but has begun to work as a translator for the Christians. Okeke has to balance the Igbo and Christian religions because he could get himself in trouble and or other people in trouble. Okeke “interpreted wisely to the spirits and leaders of Umuofia,” (190). Okeke is trying to keep the peace between both sides of the religious argument. He is being ‘wise’ because trying not to start a war between …show more content…
Enoch converted to Christianity and thought the Umuofians “would not touch a Christian,” (186). He now sees himself as untouchable and superior to the Umuofians because of his religion. He even “tore off [an egwugwu] mask” (186) which in Umuofia was a crime. Enoch had so much faith in his religion that he even went against his own tribe’s beliefs to try and prove his new religion was true and the old was false. “He had hoped that a holy war was imminent,” (188) because he wanted to show the Ibo that the Christians were dominant and Enoch would prove it to them even by going to the extreme of committing a crime. Enoch thought a war would lead to the end of the Ibo religion forcing people to convert to Christianity. He tried to start that war by “kill[ing] and eat[ing] the sacred python” (178) which went against the Ibo religion and his father, who was the priest of the snake cult. Enoch had a “devotion to the new faith [which was] so much greater than Mr. Brown’s,” (185) and believed that the new religion was better than the old religion. While, Mr. Brown was trying to convert people if they wanted to, Enoch was trying to show the lies of the Ibo religion. Enoch was hidden away for a couple of days but this made him “greatly disappointed” (188) because he wants to be out in Umuofia supporting Christianity by trying to end the Ibo religion. Okonkwo’s extremism for the Ibo religion is similar to the extremism shown by Enoch for Christianity. Okonkwo always wants to fight for what he thinks is right and doesn’t back down from anyone. Okonkwo saw the messengers approaching, he was “trembling with hate, unable to say a word” (204) because he knew they were there to stop his people and he didn’t want to back down from them. Okonkwo has “[his] own plan of revenge” (200) for the Christians and their new religion. He wants to assert the Ibo
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.
“He who will hold another down in the mud must stay in the mud to keep him down.” This quote by Chinua Achebe describes the self-inflictions when a person purposely goes after another. This goes hand-in-hand with the Nigerian author’s magnum opus, Things Fall Apart. For the duration of the book, Achebe uses subtle events to create amplifying changes. He uses Okonkwo’s relationship with others, his learning about the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves. Achebe also uses Okonkwo’s fear of change for the Ibo regarding to the missionaries and their spread of Christianity through the region. Creating universal and relatable characters, Chinua Achebe warns people of rash actions and their effects over time.
Okonkwo fights the issue of religion with every last bone in him. He feels that religion is a waste of the hard-earned position that the Ibo
...ionaries that Okonkwo had left and that he would take the missionaries to where Okonkwo was. Obierika led them to Okonkwo’s final resting place in the forest. “We are thrust from what is figured as an intimate, insider’s view of the Igbo life to a jarringly alien one.”(Carey Snyder Things Fall Apart Blooms literature).Okonkwo felt that the Igbo people were doomed because they would not fight against the Christians so Okonkwo Hung himself from a tree. The commissioner was writing a book called “The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger(Achebe 209)” and that “One could almost write a whole chapter on him(Achebe 208)” meaning with what Okonkwo had done to the missionaries and against Christianity. Okonkwo and the missionaries both deserve part of the blame for the fall of the Igbo people and Obierika is very justified in placing blame on both of them.
...fashioned man and his son (Nwoye) reminds him of his father, who he wasn't fond of. Okonkwo is never going to convert because of his traditional beliefs. His son’s converting was a major factor that led to his suicide. Okonkwo would rather die as an Ibo than live to see his culture fall apart.
Things Fall Apart written by Chinua Achebe takes readers through the lives of how the Igbo civilization grew and developed and then how it fell. Within the book the main focus was on the Igbo’s civilization rituals and traditions that had been changed due to the travel of new foreigners. These foreigners clashed with the Igbo tribes causing many differences within the traditions set by their ancestors, ultimately causing everything to fall apart. A scene in the book shows Okonkwo, one of the main characters within the Igbo tribe, had died. One of the quotes from the book, explaining the essence of how the traditions meant to them was Obierika, talking about his friends’ death saying (“It is against our custom, it is an abomination for a man to take his own life.”)(Achebe 178) As the Europeans invaded they claimed one of their own, and buried him. The two friends had obeyed the rituals and customs set by their early ancestors within the Igbo civilization.
“Then everything had been broken.”(Achebe, page 131). Things Fall Apart is a complex story with complex events. The white men were christians while the Igbo people had their own religion. When the white men came, problems arose between the two groups and between the clan itself. This cultural collision impacted many Igbo people but different characters reacted differently. Okonkwo, who recently returned from being exiled, tries to make up for his mistakes but falls into old habits. In Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe exhibits the ways that when met with a cultural collision narrow-minded individuals may respond with violence and fear through reactions of the protagonist.
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.
The main focus in this novel is on one man, Okonkwo, the protagonist who symbolises the many Nigerians, or Africans who were struggling against the white missionaries, who brought their religion and policies and imposed them on Okonkwo’s and the other surrounding tribes. Achebe also shows how great the effect is when something as seemingly un-invasive, such as a church, is set up in a Nigerian or African Culture. Among other issues, A...
Things Fall Apart, a novel by Chinua Achebe, is a story which goes into great depth with its character development. The descriptions of the characters in this book go beyond first impressions and delve deeply into the minds of the people being described by explaining their thoughts and the experiences of their lives. Okonkwo is perhaps the most interesting example of these descriptions throughout the novel. He is a very successful man who is driven by fear and shame. Without fear there can be no courage, but when one does not choose to be truly courageous, fear can overcome them and lead to hopelessness and despair as things begin to fall apart.
Though many may interpret Okonkwo as a tragic hero are drawn to him, Obierika deserves more sympathy from the reader than Okonkwo. Obierika suffers just as Okonkwo does under the thumb of the missionaries, but he lacks the selfish focus that drives most of Okonkwo’s actions. Ultimately, Obierika’s venerability springs from his ability to see the compromise that will allow the Ibo to find a method for adaptation to the inevitable changes brought by the missionaries.
Some Igbos were more than willing to convert to this new and promising religion while other’s held dear and true to their Igbo ways. Okonkwo not only held dear to his culture but did so with a vengeance. After the remaining Igbos burnt down the Christian church in anger Okonkwo thinks, “And they had done it. Okonkwo was almost happy again.”(192) The societal pressure put on Okonkwo to be strong and manly has caused him to act nearly sadistically.
First, He was kicked out of Umofia for mistakenly killing a boy. When he left Umofia, he thought to himself, “why should a man suffer so grievously for an offense he had committed inadvertently?” He didn’t understand the consequences that he got for making a mistake. Second, no one in his clan agreed to fight against the Christians. The people in his village enjoyed that all Christians were seen as equal while limited people disagreed with that rule, Okonkwo being one of them. Therefore, he ultimately couldn’t control anything that led him to his
This novel also provided a very detailed, and seemingly accurate, account of the lives of the Ibo. The Ibo were an extremely spiritual people who answered to their gods daily. A hardworking people who based their personal worth on their community and crop achievements. Their yam crops were the backbone of the community and he who possessed the largest crops were usually respected by all in the community. The Ibo were a very gendered people. The men normally made all the rules and the woman were taught to respect their husbands decisions. In particular, Okonkwo ruled his household with an iron fist. He often beat his wives for small reasons and felt little to no remorse for doing so. While it was not uncommon for the men of the Ibo tribe to beat their wives if they disobeyed orders, Okonkwo was a character that oftentimes took it too far. In one point in the novel he badly beat one of his wives, Ojiugo, during the sacred week. During this time no one in the tribe is to commit such acts, as it is a time for peace. By beating his wife, he defied the gods and was forced to offer up animal sacrifices and payment to them. This one of Okonkwo's major character flaws, he is stubborn and self-righteous, and wishes to answer to nobody but himself. This even leads to eventual fate, when he refuses to join the Christians when most everyone else of the tribe gave in to their ideas.
Nwoye grows tired of his father and is called by the Christian faith and converts. Nwoye’s internal struggle with himself between change and tradition ultimately led him to convert against his father’s wishes. Okonkwo is extremely resistant to change, so he does everything in his power to prevent his family from converting; “‘If you turn against me when I am dead I will visit you and break your neck’” (Achebe 105). Okonkwo uses fear to keep his other children from the Igbo culture.