Obierika In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

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What would you do if your lifestyle as you know it was under attack? Most of all people have all faced the occasional bully who insults their hair, laughs at their braces or teases them for their various freckles. People can get past the little things like heckling, because deep down the bully is just looking for attention and control. Getting past an entire other culture insulting you and pushing you to do things that you think are immoral, is a very different circumstance. Sometimes we have to give in to stay safe, because too much retaliation can lead to some terrible consequences. In Chinua Achebe’s novel “Things Fall Apart”, Okonkwo’s go-to friend, Obierika, changes to stay safe. Obierika is a simple man and a very different person from the main character, Okonkwo. Although their differences, they are the best of friends and Obierika frequently speaks his mind about …show more content…

When the missionaries arrived, the village didn’t think much of it and let them plant their church. As they started getting persistent in their endeavors, the ibo people became wary and came to find that letting them wasn’t such a good idea after all. Obierika has the same feelings. Since he wasn’t strictly traditional in the first place, he decided that retaliation wasn’t a good idea either. Obierika recognized that his culture was under attack but because the missionaries are too powerful he decided that fighting back was not a good decision. In Chapter 25, Part 3, Obierika says to the district commissioner about Okonkwo’s suicide, “We cannot bury him. Only strangers can. We shall pay your men to do it. When he has been buried we will then do our duty to him. We shall make sacrifices to cleanse the desecrated land.” (Achebe 208). Obierika is saying that he wants to follow the laws and traditions of the Ibo people but he will comply with the missionaries as

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