Things Fall Apart Cultural Collision Essay

Cultural change and cultural collision is prominent in Things Fall Apart. Cultural collision and cultural change manifests Okonkwo’s inability to adapt to new culture, and greatly shows the disastrous effects of colonialism on a specific individual. Male power, honor, and sense of duty led to the decline of Okonkwo’s identity; in the long term Okonkwo’s inability to assimilate led to his downfall. Okonkwo’s sense of identity was challenged with the introduction of western ideas was because of his drive to be unlike his father. Okonkwo’s father was a very unsuccessful “agbala” and that is the last thing Okonkwo wanted to be. He constructed a big image for himself and became very acclaimed around Umuofia. Okonkwo’s personality set the frame of his character. “He was tall and when he walked, his heels hardly touched the ground and he seemed to walk on springs, as if he was going to pounce on somebody.” (3-4) When the Europeans came, it could of been considered as the starting point of altercation.

In the novel when Okonkwo was exiled from his clan, he was forgotten over the years. He came back to a very different Umuofia- a Christian Umuofia. Okonkwo was astonished to find out his only son Nwoye also converted to Christianity which was a betrayal to him. Okonkwo had a change of heart when he came back to Umuofia and things were different but this did not change Okonkwo’s actions. He felt like he had to continue to strive to be unlike his father. This was one of Okonkwo’s biggest fears. Okonkwo worked very hard for a sense of identity, which was actually detrimental to everything he worked