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Influences of religion on culture
Effects of colonization on indigenous people and their traditional way of life
Effects of colonization on indigenous people and their traditional way of life
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The question “Why do we tell stories” does not have one simple answer as any individual may have a different response to the question based on their background but, this essay will attempt to form a cohesive answer to the question by responding to three statements, (1)“Some texts seem to be fighting for or against social change or political attitudes or traditions. Choose and discuss the fight for or against this change.”, (2)“Humans are the only animals who seek to understand themselves.The search of this understanding is a theme in many pieces of literature.”, (3) “Lord Acton once said, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The use and abuse of power is a recurring theme. Discuss how this theme is developed.” ; …show more content…
The story Things Fall Apart uses the fictional story of a wealthy tribal man in West Africa as a backdrop to explore and explain the great culture of these tribals as well as the effect of colonialism on their society. Through learning about the culture of these people, we can understand how humans seek to understand themselves and their world through any means. “Near the barn was a small house, the “medicine house” or shrine where Okonkwo kept the wooden symbols of his personal god and of his ancestral spirits. He worshipped them with sacrifices of kola nut, food and palm-wine, and offered prayers to them on behalf of himself, his three wives and eight children. ( Chinua Achebe,Things Fall Apart, ch.2,pg.14) We see from this qoute that these people seek to understand themselves through a deeply rooted faith of spirits and ancestor worship. Even though this story is fictional, we see how someone would want to tell this story in order to learn about how these people’s culture shaped their understanding themselves as well as not forgetting the hardships and horror they had gone through during colonialism. “But he says that our customs are bad; and our own brothers who have taken up his religion also say that our customs are bad. How do you think we can fight when our own brothers have turned against us? The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.” ( Chinua Achebe,Things Fall Apart, ch.20) Again from this quote we see further how humans often go through
Stories are a means of passing on information, acting as a medium to transport cultural heritage and customs forward into the future. In his essay titled "You'll Never Believe What Happened," King says that, "The truth about stories is that that's all we are” (King Essay 2). Contained within this statement is a powerful truth: without stories, a society transcending the limitations of time could not exist. Cultures might appear, but they would inevitably die away without a means of preservation. Subsequent generations would be tasked with creating language, customs, and moral laws, all from scratch. In a way, stories form the core of society's existence.
On Monday nights I get together with a few friends to exchange ideas about writing and to exchange pieces that we have written. A few Mondays ago one of those friends was having the most fundamental of creative writing problems. "Why should I ever write anything?" she moaned. "Why should any of us? No one wants to hear anything I have to say because I have nothing new to say about any of it." After I, along with the rest of the group, tossed some sympathetic and half-heartedly reassuring words to her I had a thought. "Ultimately, everyone wants to feel like they are not alone. No matter how right or how wrong we think our lives are going or how right or wrong our thoughts are, we want to know that other people are there to support us because they empathize with our experiences." What I was trying to explain is the reasoning behind continuing to write creatively after thousands of years of recorded literature. What I also realized is that, unless the subject deals with some knew political or technological development, people have not really found any new subjects about which to write. Love is still as wonderful and painful as it has always been, death is still as mysterious, deception, betrayal, adventure, none of these things has changed and yet they are among the most commonly written on subjects. Why have we, as a race, not told ourselves that there is no new subject about which we can write and therefore that we should throw in the towel altogether? One reason may well be that humyns, in general, are loathe to admit our shortcomings and are, therefore, ultimately arrogant. But humyn beings are also ultimately lonely. Of course, there are many reasons people read: seeking excitement, research, etc. But why, for example, read a biography of a person you do not know? Because we want to relate to other people. We want to feel good about ourselves as people by reading about the happiness in another's life. We want to feel better about ourselves by reading that someone else has the same problems as we. We tire of our own lives, we get curious, we seek connection, and we want to hear stories about things that others have done that we, perhaps, have not.
Imagine if you would, to be in another culture, and someone who is unwanted, unwelcome has come into it and has caused it to crumble. You and your family are plunged into failure and your life is falling apart. These people, the missionaries, arrived from England to colonize Africa during the colonial period. There were many problems faced by the native people, most of whom were not about to drop all of their beliefs to adopt a foreigners customs. Such beliefs existed in the protagonist, Okonkwo, and are the roots of the challenges faced by Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart, in which the author, Chinua Achebe, writes of the challenges to Okonkwo's sense of identity. Western ideas have clashed with his sense of family, his ideas of gender, and position of leadership within the clan, which influences and forms the meaning of the book.
In “The Truth about Stories”, Thomas King, demonstrate connection between the Native storytelling and the authentic world. He examines various themes in the stories such as; oppression, racism, identity and discrimination. He uses the creational stories and implies in to the world today and points out the racism and identity issues the Native people went through and are going through. The surroundings shape individuals’ life and a story plays vital roles. How one tells a story has huge impact on the listeners and readers. King uses sarcastic tone as he tells the current stories of Native people and his experiences. He points out to the events and incidents such as the government apologizing for the colonialism, however, words remains as they are and are not exchanged for actions. King continuously alerts the reader about taking actions towards change as people tend to be ignorant of what is going around them. At the end people give a simple reason that they were not aware of it. Thus, the author constantly reminds the readers that now they are aware of the issue so they do not have any reason to be ignorant.
In conclusion it is evident that the power of storytelling is a form of social control because many people look to the stories that are rooted in their culture and they use it to formulate their dominant fantasies and they also use stories to help them identify both others and themselves. Therefore the one who tells stories holds great power and the stories that he or she chooses to tell help reinforce certain dominant fantasies.
In the novel “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe, the protagonist Okonkwo struggles between tribal tradition, his internal conflicts with his own beliefs, and the arrival of European missionaries to Africa. Okonkwo’s own perspective is limited to a heavily masculine praising mindset, driving him to be rash and violent at times, but his own tribe has a variety of traditions and personalities. Immediately, Okonkwo sees these missionaries as a threat to his place in society, their beliefs are frowned upon by most of the tribes and people of power. Missionaries see African tribes as animalistic and primitive. Okonkwo’s perspective was valid considering all the damage missionaries would eventually cause in the long run. A loss of culture and the
In life, stories are an essential component of human survival and success. Stories enable people’s legacies to continue even when they pass away. Also, stories allow the storyteller freedom to share what he chooses to. The significance of stories is demonstated throughout literary works. Some works that show the significance of stories include, The Things They Carried, The Big Fish, “The Evolutionary Case for Great Fiction” and “For Better Social Skills, Scientists Recommend a Little Chekhov.” Stories are an essential aspect to human life because of their ability to keep memories alive as they aid man in coping with death and post-traumatic stress. Also, stories play an important role in many different areas ranging from the survival of a species to preparation for a job interview.
As humans, we constantly find ourselves engaged in the act of story telling. We are story telling and story creating animals—we act by stories, teach by stories, and learn by stories. A narrative is best described as a representation of a particular situation, process, or idea, in such a way to reflect on or communicate a set of overarching ideas. In short, narratives can be used as mechanisms to domesticate the wild world around us, and have influential value. In the social sciences, narratives are useful as a means of interpretation and finding meaning in the context of a culture. Through a holistic study of how individuals apprehend the world by finding meaning, the concept of a narrative carries great significance, demonstrated through
The following section restates the main points of this paper and supports that stories are equipment for living which incorporate positive interpersonal communication ideas. Meaning they teach people how they should interact within the world and with others in order to create a just society for everyone. It is important to keep in mind that, “we inhabit the great stories of our culture. We live through stories. We are lived by the stories of our race and place…it is this enveloping and constituting function of stories that is especially important to sense more fully.” (Mair, 1998, p. 127). Stories tell people how to view the world, how to treat others, how to make the most out of their life, what the meaning of life is, and so much more. When stories are written for the people this allows the audience to connect with it. This is because there is at least one major aspect the audience can associate with, which is exactly how
Religious accusations, which serve as catalysts for conflict, help to develop an accurate portrayal of imperialism and Ibo culture. In Things Fall Apart, the missionaries assertively state “Your gods are not alive and cannot do you any harm” (Achebe 146). This quotation shows the imperialists accusing the gods the Ibo people believe in and worship of being false gods that are idols. These gods cannot harm them and do not pose any threat. Also, in Achebe’s interview, “An African Voice,” he says “You have leaders who see nothing wrong in inciting religious conflict.
There are many different religions in the world but they are all capable of doing similar things. Religion plays a significant role in the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. In this book religion is important to the people of Umuofia ,which is the village where the protagonist, Okonkwo lives. The people of the village believed there was only one religion ,and when another religion was introduced to them they would not believe in it. This religion was Christianity. During the novel the power of religion both guides and destroys the society of Umuofia.
Narrative has a large role in shaping and maintaining society. In J. Hillis Miller’s chapter “Narrative” in Frank Lentricchia and Thomas McLaughlin’s book Critical Terms for Literary Study, J. Hillis Miller argues that narrative is present in all stages of human life from early childhood development and into adulthood. It is used in early childhood development to teach adolescents how to tell a story and make them aware of what is socially acceptable behavior. However, socially acceptable behavior does not necessarily need to be learned as an adult. Instead, adults use narratives in order to fill a sense of lacking and to find meaning and purpose in life. Miller suggests that narration is a way for humans to make sense of experience and life
When it comes to religion in works of literature, some people that try to influence a particular religion on to others can be portrayed as quite forceful. They could think that their religion is the greatest one of them all and ignore all other religions. In his novel, Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe portrays colonizers exactly like this, wanting others to know that their religion is the only one that matters. The colonizers come to Umuofia to let the people of the village know about Christianity. At first, the villagers think that they were mad, but later on some of them would soon convert to Christianity. The colonizers are portrayed like this because that could be what colonialism is like. They want to politically control the village of Umuofia by sending settlers to the village and making them tell the natives of their religion. They are somewhat successful as they have converted some natives to Christianity. As the story progresses, some even find out that their religion may not be for everyone.
Primarily, the effect of Storytelling shows that the protagonists in both of the texts are thrown into a world which they discover their inner selves and transform from diffident characters with serious lack of empowerment to characters which burst from self-confidence. Additionally, the narrators John Avnet and Doris Lessing employ storytelling to convey the important ideas of stories as a positive life changing experience.
Western thought perceives African culture and religion as customs and superstitions rather than just an alternative form of culture and religion. Calling them superstitions is not merely using alternative vocabulary, but is a conscious degradation of the practices. In Things Fall Apart, the religious practices of Okonkwo 's tribe are taken very seriously and the white man 's religion is described as crazy and their god as merely a fetish. However, the villagers do not fail to notice that "the white man 's fetish had unbelievable power" when the men who built a church within the evil forest failed to die as they should have (149). Rather than dismissing the European religion because of its difference, the locals noted its power even though they did not understand how it worked. After conflict with the new church, the village "decided to ostracize the Christians" (159). The new converts were pushed outside of the community because they had become involved with the strange, foreign superstitions and customs. Through the tribe 's relation with the new church, Achebe reversed the roles that African and European religion had played in previously existing