How Does Nwoye Change Throughout The Novel

Analytical Essay over Character Development in Nwoye
European colonization was a profound event that had major impacts on the cultures in Africa. In one of these cultures, the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebea takes place in a village in Nigeria, describing the life of Okonkwo and his family. Nwoye, Okonkwo’s son, undergoes a series of changes in the book, stemming from the cultural collisions of the white men and the Ibo traditions.
But before the white men came to the village, Nwoye grew from a child to a man. At the beginning of the novel, Nwoye is immediately characterized as womanlike by Okonkwo. The traits that he is said to possess are aspects that Okonkwo’s father, Unoka also had, “gentleness and another was idleness” (Achebe

Throughout the book, Okonkwo bears down upon Nwoye and tells him that he will not amount to anything in the village. Okonkwo refers to Nwoye to one of his friends saying that, “I have done my best to make Nwoye grow into a man, but there is too much of his mother in him” (Achebe pg. 66). Converting to Christianity was Nwoye’s way of showing his father that he was no longer going to stand in his shadow. Of course, Nwoye is also led to change because of Ikemefuna’s death; the guilt weighing on him until he hears the words of the missionaries. In the novel, after listening to them sing, he thinks that the hymn “seemed to answer a vague and persistent question that haunted his young soul” (Achebe pg. 147). When Nwoye hears the preaching and hymn, a wondrous curiosity drives him to know more, leading to his eventual conversion. He is captivated by the promises and stories of the Christians, and even though he does not fully understand, he dares to learn. He is able to keep his secret for some time, being careful and making sure “not go too near the missionaries for fear of his father” (Achebe pg. 149). Even though he realizes the consequences of his actions, he is unable to bring himself away from the church, the changes within causing him confliction. As the white men impose on the village, their beliefs bring about further developments in Nwoye, making him further from

One of the obvious ways he does this is by changing his name from Nwoye to Issac and going to the new training college for teachers. When Mr. Brown informs Okonkwo what his son has accomplished, the man was driven “away with the threat that if he came into his compound again, he would be carried out of it” (Achebe pg. 182).In the Bible, when God would change one of his followers’ names, it was to give them a new identity and separate them from their old selves. In the same sense, Nwoye changed his name to Issac so that he may be recognized as a different person than who he was with his father. Another way he demonstrates his change is by leaving his household and going to live with the church. This was a necessary shift because when he tried to return to his home, “his father, suddenly overcome with fury, sprang to his feet and gripped him by the neck” (Achebe pg. 151). To keep himself safe, he leaves Okonkwo and goes to join the other converts. Lastly, he resolves to get his family out of Okonkwo’s care. Even though he does not fully understand Christianity himself, “he would return later to his mother and his brothers and sisters and convert them to the new faith” (Achebe pg. 152). As a believer in the new faith, he now attempts to practice one of the most prevalent ideals of the religion: influencing those around him so that they may also be drawn to Christ. The demonstrations of his development in