Similarities Between Things Fall Apart And The Poisonwood Bible

As human beings, much of our moral standing ties back to our roots, our culture, how we were raised and where. A lot of the time, these are the factors that play into almost any argument. Your culture changes with time, as you get older and have more experiences, it makes up who you are and depicts your beliefs. Everyone has a culture, some more similar than others, and others are wildly different.
“And after all, our surroundings influence our lives and characters as much as fate, destiny or any supernatural agency.” Pauline Hopkins, Contending Forces
Both Things Fall Apart and The Poisonwood Bible take place in Africa where the culture is much different then here in the united states. It mentions in both of these books how many of the male characters have a plethora of wives, and the more wives you have, brings you more respect in your village or your clan. The main Character, Okonkwo from Things Fall Apart has three wives. Nwoye, Ekwefi, and Obiageli. In African culture, a wife is an object that can be bought. A “Bride Price” is mentioned when Okonkwo takes part in a discussion about the suitor of Obierika's daughter, when they try to figure out how much the groom should pay the family for the daughter. In The Poisonwood Bible, Leah has a discussion with Anatole about how he needs to save up for a wife someday. But eventually Leah

and Anatole fall in love and he defies his upbringing and culture by marrying her, knowing that this means that she is the only wife that he can have, but he chooses only her because he loves her. Leah adapts to African culture because of her growing up there, later in the book when she returns home to America, America seems strange and foreign to her, so upon given the choice to move back, she chooses to stay in africa to raise her four sons with Anatole.
In Things Fall Apart, when the missionary, Mr. Brown comes to Umuofia, he is very understanding of the culture difference between himself and the people of the clan. Instead of chastising them for their differences, he befriends them and helps them to improve, by building hospitals and doing things that would be beneficial for them. He doesn’t force his beliefs to the people but instead, gently offers it to them. Reverend James Smith is the exact opposite of this. He is not understanding of the people and is very strict towards them. His assistant, Enoch is a prime example of a culture clash. He tries to show Okonkwo’s village that their Gods are false by ripping off the mask of the Egwugwu during the annual ceremony, but instead of proving his point, this only causes an uproar, and the clan no longer wants anything to do with the Christians.
In the Poisonwood Bible, Nathan Price Never sets forth to make any connections with the people whom’s souls he is trying to save, he is only concerned with setting them straight.

He is not understanding with the people at all. Upon arrival to the congo, the first thing that he does is embarrass and ridicule the people who were so excited for him to come. He Scorns and mocks the toppless Women for their nakedness, and points out several of them individually. Instead of them wanting to know more about what he had to say, many people simply turned against him for his harshness, including his wife and daughters at the end of the

story.
Nathan Price had a vision of himself flying down to the congo and baptizing hundreds of congolese children in the river. This is also one of the reasons that he waited to baptise his youngest daughter Ruth May. He wanted for the people to see him baptising his daughter and triumphantly allow their children to do the same. But Nathan Price had a heavy cultural arrogance. He didn’t understand that the people did not want to dunk their babies in the river because that was the dwelling place of a ferocious beast that could potentially gobble them up.
Nathan also gets offended when he finds out that the tribe leader was only letting him hang around in the village because he gives the outcasts something to do. But when Nathan starts to bring some of the tribe to Christianity who are not outcasts and the tribe leader gets upset because he feels like the people aren't spending enough time making sacrifices to the gods of the village, Nathan respond in Anger, because these people do not understand the concept of Monotheism. Nathan Price is culturally arrogant. His oldest daughter Rachel is also this way, even though she never goes home to America, but chooses to stay in Africa, she is never accepting of cultural difference, this is probably why she could never seem to find a suitable husband, because their cultures clashed so much, causing many disagreements, but she never went back to America for fear of not fitting in, because her culture had changed so much.
“Preservation of one's own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for others cultures.”- Cesar Chavez
“A Nation's Culture resides in the heart and soul of its people.” - Mahatma Gandhi
The physical surroundings had a very large effect on the lives of the people living there, especially the Price family as they never thought that one of their sisters could ever possibly die from a snake bite in the congo. What they had thought to be “Normal” was completely different than the “Normal” that they had come to know in the congo.
As a whole, the lessons that both of these works teach us is that sometimes, just because someone’s way of living and their stigmas of life are different from yours, doesn't make either of you necessarily right or wrong and it is important to respect the other.