Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

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Throughout history we have learned that different societies are accompanied by different customs. Amongst these customs are the rules, morality, ethnic norms and others that make a society unique.Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a novel that describes a Nigerian community Ibo, that has its own set or rules, norms and traditions. In this novel we are exposed to a community that goes through struggles between change and tradition when Christianity is introduced to the society through British colonization. The novel remains ambivalent about the courses of action that officials and missionaries used to enact Christianity in the Ibo culture. The change that is confronted by this culture affect various characters in different ways. How Christianity is being introduced also affects the Ibo people and their experience of transition. Mr. Brown is the first missionary that travels to Umuofia one of the clans of the Ibo society. As he attempts to establish Christianity he uses a method of “diplomatic exchange” in which he uses the technique of comprehension, understanding and non-aggression between the group he is guiding and the clan. “Mr. Brown, the white missionary, who was very firm in restraining his flock from provoking the wrath of the clan.” (Achebe, p.178) This argues the typical aggressive approach that is related to the method of colonization. Mr. Brown shows respect to the religion that the clan has lived by and decides that by learning about it he will have a clearer perspective of how to approach the indigenous people to convert. “Whenever Mr.Brown went to that village he spent long hours with Akunna in his obi talking through an interpreter about religion. Neither of them succeeded in converting the other but they lear... ... middle of paper ... ...xposes a society that had to undergo the colonization of the British. Under this colonization they experienced different treatments of transition with different results. The author remains ambivalent about the affects that missionaries and government officials have on the Ibo. On the positive side colonization introduced different values like education and the importance of health. On the other hand the negative side of colonization was the evident flaws in the “white men's system” like abuse, torture, aggressions, corruptness, lack of appreciation and understanding of the exiting cultural system. This novel allows us to view the difference in cultures and clarify that what for some societies what is considered to be a wrong doing for another society that might just be something that is accepted in their culture. Works Cited Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

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