Cultural Collision In Things Fall Apart

Cultural collisions can have a negative or positive effect on people. Trying to change such a big part of you and the way you have always lived can be very hard on people. Others will choose to embrace it. Nwoye’s sense of identity was challenged with the introduction of Western ideas into the Ibo culture. Nwoye started out the novel sensitive and confused, but the cultural collision of the British colonists and Ibo people affected Nwoye, positively to the point of changing cultures and leaving his clan. The reasons for Nwoye’s change in their sense of identity included his relationship with his father and his acceptance of the Missionaries. Ultimately, their response to the introduction of Western ideas shaped the meaning of the work as a whole by showing the positive effects the new culture can have on someone.
The first reason Nwoye’s sense of identity was challenged with the introduction of the Western ideas was because of his relationship with his father. In the beginning of Things Fall Apart, it tells us

“Although Nwoye had been attracted to the new faith from the very first day, he had kept it a secret.”(112) He was afraid to be different and show who he really was. He was always around when they would preach and he even started to remember some of the stories they told. Eventually he was tired of hiding it and when he just couldn’t handle his father anymore he ran away. In Things Fall Apart it tells us “He (Nwoye) went back to the church and told Mr. Kiaga that he had decided to go to Umuofia where the white missionary had set up school to teach young Christians to read and write.” Nwoye was so excited to leave his father but would eventually come back to visit his mother, brothers, and sisters of course! This evidence supports my claim because this chapter explains Nwoye’s journey of converting to