Igbo Religion

Unlike others tales of the colonialism, Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart tells the perspective of the natives in their slow defeat from the white man. Okonkwo, the hardworking main protagonist, finds relief in following the old Igbo traditions, but with the arrival of the Christian missionaries, Okonkwo’s clan, Umuofia, slowly adopts the new religion destroying Okonkwo’s dream of living the tradition Igbo lifestyle. With the growth of the church, outcasts and men who opposed the traditional lifestyle converted to the religion, but Okonkwo and the men surrounding him learns to resentment the religion for changing their way of life. While many of the Igbos despise the new religion, a closer look reveals that the traditional Igbo ideals of

Okonkwo always looked down on his son, Nwoye, for his son’s likeness to Okonkwo’s father, Unoka who symbolized laziness to Okonkwo. From the start of his life, Nwoye was always scared of his father for his father’s abusive behavior. With the missionaries’ arrival, Nwoye drew into Christianity’s appeal, but when Okonkwo discovered his son’s interest in Christianity, Okonkwo beat him. After Okonkwo’s beating, Nwoye “walked away and never returned” to Okonkwo (107). Nwoye hated his father for beating him, and when he couldn’t take his father anymore, he ran away. Christianity promised relief to the abused Nwoye and redemption from his

In Igbo culture, twin babies are viewed as evils of nature and a demonic force, because only animals born babies in multiples more than two. Since twin babies are considered evil, the get moved into the evil forest where they get killed due to starvation, dehydration or wild animals. Once night, Nwoye took a walk in the evil forest and heard babies voice giving him “a vague chill” and making “his head had seemed to swell, like a solitary walker at night at night who passes an evil spirit on the way” (43). The Igbo views twin babies as evil and a wrong in nature. While cruel, the consequences of keeping the babies outweighs the guilt of killing the babies justifies for most families. For the few who dislike the practice, they cannot speak out unless they want to be called weak. Also, in a society where masculinity and reputation dominates, a person called weak falls on the bottom of society. With the inability to rise in Igbo society, and Christianity preaching to stop the practice of killing twins, these men turn to the new