Igbo Culture In Things Fall Apart

Cultures often clash and religion, values, and beliefs are questioned, just like in the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. In the novel, Igbo culture is questioned by members within and outside of the community. Before the arrival of the white men, villages lived closely, believed in the same many Gods, and stood together against common enemies. Even though most of all the Igbo people are faithful towards their beliefs, Obierika thought otherwise. Obierika was one of the few people who believed changes could be brought to the culture of the Igbo and often questioned it as well. He chose not to get involved with the new culture and let it take its course. Before the introduction of the white men, Obierika was a well-respected member of Umuofia and was close friends with another respected man of the village, Okonkwo. Obierika was the opposite of Okonkwo; he didn’t resolve his problems through violence and did his best to avoid unnecessary violence. In Chapter 8, after Ikemefuna was killed, Okonkwo visits his friend Obierika where Obierika tells his friend,

He saw the effects on the white men with everyone within their society, beginning with the osu. Obierika claimed in Chapter 20, “he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one - put a knife on the things that have held us together and we have fallen apart”. After realizing the effects, he faces his consequence. That result was losing his close friend Okonkwo. When he faced the commissioner after losing his best friend due to suicide, he said, “ferociously; ‘That man was one of the greatest men in Umuofia. You drove him to kill himself; and now he will be buried like a dog…’ He could not say any more. His voice trembled and choked his words.”, Ch 25 pg. 208. Obierika let his rage out to the foreigner for driving his friend to take his own