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Upon Okonkwo’s return to Umuofia, he recognizes noticeable changes. The white men have built a church and founded a new religion among the people and subjected to follow their rules. As a man of violence, Okonkwo wants to fight the Christians until they leave. His people, on the other hand, have accepted the new ways. It’s evident to Okonkwo that these white men were clever to invite themselves into the tribe and take advantage of the Ibo people’s curiosity.
Analyzing conflict through cultural perspective The distinct perspectives of the Igbo and the white missionaries cultures validates the conflict between them by emphasizing their similarities and differences. These similarities and differences allow the reader to understand why the two cultures are interacting the way they are. The similar connections made between the cultures and the completely differing values allow for their to be conflict and conversion between the Igbo and white missionaries.
There are many different cultures and religions in the world. Cultures can change when other religions and people are introduced. So how did the Igbo religion/ culture change when Christianity was introduced? There were many significant changes that the Igbo endured during colonization. With colonization came the introduction of Christianity.
Okonkwo Falls Apart Chinua Achebe offers a rare look at the natives perspective during colonialism in his work Things Fall Apart. The central struggle in the main character Okonkwo is that he is beginning to lose his way of life, and he is not able to do anything about it. Conflicts in religious beliefs with the arrival of the missionaries heightens Okonkwo 's internal aggression, and his inability to adapt leads to his downfall.
“But stories were already gaining ground that the white man had not only brought a religion but also a government.” (Achebe 155). In the novel, Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe the main character Okonkwo lives in Nigeria, Africa where a group of white missionaries come to convert the Nigerians to Christianity. The Christian Missionaries believed that their set of beliefs were superior to other beliefs and that they were the only ones who should be followed. They pushed their religion upon other people in the Nigerian tribes, and they successfully converted a few.
The Igbo religion had been passed on from generation to generation, which caused them to be so strong in their religion, so when the white missionaries came and tried to convert them, they were very unwilling to switch to Christianity (Kucharski, Mike.). The fictional characters in the novel participated in certain rituals that reflect the religion of the Igbo people. When public events take place in the novel, the egwugwu, who represent the ancestors and deities, meet with all the people of the village in one space; this shows that the Igbo had a religion that influenced their government (Ogbaa, Kalu.). In the later chapters of Things Fall Apart, Achebe uses a conversation between Okonkwo and Obierika to say that the village’s way of life works because of their land, language, customs, and religion, but the white missionaries disturbed the peace of their village and caused things to begin to go badly for the Igbo (Achebe, Chinua.). Throughout the whole novel, Achebe points out the main differences between the Igbo religion and Christianity.
Throughout the world and Africa a lot of imperialism happens because of missionaries. It also happens in the book and poem White man’s Burden and Things fall Apart. White man’s burden is a poem about people who took up the responsibility to teach non-whites Christianity. The people that they were trying to teach did not understand the reasoning for them doing this. Things fall Apart is a book about the villages of the Igbo religion and a man named Okonkwo, a leader of a clan.
The U.S. was never entirely detached from the world. Trade made the U.S. a self-motivated participant of world businesses. It was during the 1890s that the U.S. overseas strategy became motivated by expansionism. During that period, the U.S. progressed into the most significant industry in the world. Which meant that we had to find markets and areas to attain fresh resources.
This stanza by W.B. Yeats in his poem, The Second Coming, correlates superbly to the novel, Things Fall Apart, by asserting how the world can turn chaotic. Chinua Achebe, author of Things Fall Apart, uses this verse to show the disastrous impact British Colonization had on the Igbo culture during their African imperialistic efforts in Nigeria. In this historical novel, Achebe depicts the life of a hard-working warrior and clan leader, named Okonkwo, and the struggles he faces throughout his life. Meanwhile, the arrival of white missionaries is shown in a different perspective than previous imperialist novels by showing how their attempts wreaked havoc on Okonkwo’s village and African culture. In Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart, the main character,
“If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.” (Angelou) The white missionaries coming to the igbo tribe really pushes the tribe’s unity to the limit. In Achebe’s book Things Fall Apart the Igbo tribe goes through many trials with change.
Customs and traditions of any society, tribe or clan keep them vibrant about the cultural patterns. The people follow the customs and traditions to regulate the social order. But the customs and traditions have two facets .If the people of the society, tribe or clan do not change their customs as per the changing cultural patterns, the issues of culture persist to disintegrate the people from the ethnicity and the issues of identity in different spheres take place as the matter of ‘pride’ or ‘title’ in fostering the right cultural patterns. Arrow of God (1964) reflects the different customs and traditions of the Igbo clan.
In addition, Nwoye and Nneka the twins who’s in the family seem to be looked at as bad luck, the osu and other joined the missionaries. “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.” This quote or passage obviously fixed the demolition of the Igbo people’s
Even though it has been over sixty years since Myanmar was imperialized, remnants of the outcome of imperialism can still be well observed. The language, the clothing, the infrastructures all have been affected by imperialism. These effects may deceive people into thinking that imperialism was all sunshine and rainbows but in reality, imperialism brutally destroyed the different aspects of a country. Imperialism impacted societies in countless negative ways. It led to slave trade which then led to social discrimination around the world.
The story has many examples of the importance of community through tradition and religion, which also plays a major part in the story. For example, we see the community working together and supporting each other throughout the book, until change visits them and changes their culture and muddles their ideals. The introduction of the white man forever changes the Igbo culture which we see at the very end of the book when Okonkwo kills the missionary to try to bring war to drive the change out, and no one supports him. The community has changed, and Okonkwo hadn’t realized it, this change was destructive to both the Igbo culture and to Okonkwo, as he realizes that the change he is trying to prevent is inevitable, and the community he once was respected in and loved, had turned their backs on
Achebe chose a character like Okonkwo as he felt that such a character would portray Nigerians as they really were. Throughout the book Okonkwo was characterized deeply which is a reflection of the authors purpose for writing the book. In the book the use of characters like Mr Brown and Mr Smith also reflect Achebe’s context. Since Achebe is a Christian whose parents were missionaries he spoke about the good side and bad side of the western colonization through the use of characters like Mr. Smith and Mr. Brown. Missionaries were the white men who were colonizing African tribes.
