What Is Achebe's Perspective On Things Fall Apart

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Achebe’s Perspective of Africa: In his novel Things Fall Apart, Achebe presents Africa in a very different light. As an African man born to a Christian family in Nigeria, he undoubtedly has personal experience with the forces of the western world on Africa, especially those of Christianity and treatment of Africans in Africa. Achebe therefore serves as a credible sympathizer for the Africans that are continually being oppressed by the western world. As a native African, he would be biased toward the African people, as a Christian, he would be able to see the potential of Christianity as a positive force, as seen by when Mr. Brown as the acting missionary. Achebe can effectively portray the Igbo tradition and emphasize how it …show more content…

Under Mr. Brown, the church was slow to dismantle the beliefs of the tribe. Attracting the lowest class citizens and placed in the evil forest, the Church began to cast suspicion on African faith when they weren’t punished for their location or make up and suspicion of the African culture drew many to Christianity; however, the most apparent and perhaps the more well-known narrative was that of Mr. Smith whose more zealous and militant approach encouraged his church goers to act arrogantly and disrespectfully, committing an ultimate act of blasphemy by killing a god by demasking the egwugwu (Achebe 132). This prompted a violent response from the tribe who then proceeded to burn down the church. And this all gave the Mr. Smith and his people to force the western courts on them and impose western justice on the men who knew nothing of it, forcing westernization suddenly on a population that was given no time to adapt because people like Mr. Smith believed that the African culture was “bad” because they didn’t worship the “true God” or embrace the practices of a “good Christian.” Smith essentially “put a knife on things” and destroyed the autonomy and cultural organization of the African

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