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How Does Umoufia Change

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Clinging to tradition and religious faith comes to be nearly impossible for African clans. Throughout the novel, Things Fall Apart written by Chinua Achebe the main character Okonkwo and his fatherland Umoufia strives to keep their clan as one. When Christian missionaries come to propose a takeover, the villagers of Umoufia dispute their capabilities to be able to stop the spread of Christianity. The villager 's actions begin to demonstrate that change is inevitable. While Okonkwo is in exile, things begin to spark tension. First, missionaries reveal desperation for land and ask the Mbanta people for reservation to build a church on. Then the clan grants the missionaries the evil forest, assuming they 'll die by spirits that haunt the forest. After some amount time, villagers realize not one missionary has died. The people of Mbanta start to develop the idea that the Christians might be able to see and communicate with evil spirits winning over some converts. Lastly, the missionaries catch the son of Okonkwo 's attention. Furthermore, the missionaries are rising to make their entrance into the clan, establishing the theme change is inevitable. …show more content…

Not only are the converts outcasts, but they 're also men of title. Missionaries have now organized their own government, along with a district commissioner. This leaves Okonkwo in skepticism that his once strong clan is beginning to weaken. "Okonkwo was deeply grieved[...]. He mourned for the clan, which he saw breaking and falling apart, and he mourned for the warlike men of Umuofia, who had so unaccountably become soft like women." (134). This obviously confirms the missionaries now have the upper hand on the clans because now they have relevant people. Showing more that change has become more

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Once again, Nwoye found peace away from his father when the Christian missionaries came to Mbanta, the motherland where Okonkwo and his family were exiled to. Nwoye converted to Christianity and escaped the force of his father in their household. Okonkwo, of course, didn’t support his son’s decision and was completely against Nwoye leaving behind the tradition the Okonkwo followed so deeply. A paragraph in chapter seventeen reflects on Okonkwo’s thoughts. “To abandon the gods of one’s father and go about

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In Things Fall Apart Okonkwo’s eldest son Nwoye is very different than his father. He is not aggressive and manly but more effeminate. Okonkwo feels like Nwoye is a disappointment because he doesn’t follow his values while Nwoye loses all respect for his father because he doesn’t want to live in his shadow. Later on, Christian missionaries come to their village and Nwoye is taught that there is a better way to live and is amazed by it. The missionaries speak about a story of “...brothers who lived in darkness and in fear, ignorant love of God” (Achebe), which really touched Nwoye and made him find peace in leaving his father’s teachings and convert to

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Obierika returns to Mbanta. He has decided to visit Okonkwo because he has seen Nwoye with some of the Christian missionaries who have arrived. Most of the other converts, Obierika finds, have been efulefu, men who hold no status and who are generally ignored by the clan. Okonkwo will not talk about Nwoye, but Nwoye’s mother tells Obierika some of the story. Then in chapter 17 the missionaries request a piece of land on which to build a church.

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All that Okonkwo has done is his life is try to achieve more, but when he doesn 't learn to adapt he causes thing to fall apart. As an example, when Okonkwo refuses to listen to the missionaries in chapter twenty-four the messenger said, ‘“The white man whose power you know too well has ordered this meeting to stop.”’ Because Okonkwo never feared the missionaries when he should have he made the fatal mistake that caused him to take his own life.

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Not realizing that they were being set up, the men were quickly handcuffed and told that they had to pay a fine in order to leave. After the fine was paid, they all left and that night the elders called a tribe meeting. In the morning they all gathered around and said that the missionaries had to leave. The court messengers heard about this and when they told them to stop Okonkwo killed one of them with his machete. The people were confused as to why he did it and the next day they found him

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Okonkwo has a very negative response to the arrival of the white man. He yelled for the clans/tribes to run them out and go to war, his stance on the matter along with the lack of cooperation of the clan ultimately led to his death. Unfortunately for him his son accepted them with open arms and because of this Okonkwo says he no longer is my son and he despises him for betraying his ancestors. Whenever someone else did the same he thought they should be gone or killed. He and some of the are other elders in the clan are scared for this younger generation saying they have no respect for their fathers or brothers nor their ancestors.

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Everyone as a human being has experienced some form of change in our life, big or small, and it has a lasting effect on who they are and how they act. In Chinua Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart’, change is a forward facing theme of the whole story, we see change in all forms occur throughout the book; the arrival of the white men and their changing of the igbo culture, the tearing apart of Okonkwo’s family by religion and traditions, and the change that occurs within Okonkwo himself when he realizes he cannot prevent change from happening in the community and culture he loved. Change is destructive in ‘Things Fall Apart’, especially to such a magnitude as we see in the story, it is destructive to communities, to families, and especially to individuals.

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