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Things Fall Apart Research Paper

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Nwoye’s before and after missionaries Before the missionaries came everything was fine and normal, but after they came some people changed and some stayed the same. Everyone had a different reaction, whether it was a positive or a negative one to the missionaries being there. Nwoye is one of the many that changed when the missionaries showed up. In Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart not everyone had a positive experience with the missionaries being there like Nwoye did. In the beginning of the book Nwoye didn’t have a very good life, his father Okonkwo was abusive towards him and he thought that Nwoye was lazy, and they weren’t close. Chinua Achebe writes “...Was already causing his father great anxiety for his incipient laziness. At …show more content…

Chinua Achebe writes “Then something had given way inside him. It descended on him again, this feeling, when his father walked in, that night after killing Ikemefuna”(62). Nwoye was not that close with his father to begin with, and after that he despised him. At the end of the book when the missionaries came, they welcomed him, he became hopeful. At first he was going to church in secret, but when Okonkwo found out, Nwoye left to completely join the missionaries. Chinua Achebe writes “Although Nwoye had been attracted to the new faith from the very first day, he kept it secret. He dared not go too near the missionaries for fear of his father”(149). At the end Nwoye accepted the missionaries offer and went away to study and to become a teacher. In conclusion Nwoye was one of the few people that had a positive experience with the missionaries. Nwoye was able to get away from his bad past and his father, and he was able to explore a new faith and will become a teacher. In Things Fall Apart Nwoye was able to escape his bad past with the new faith and in real life some people use their faith to escape their lives. We can learn from this book to not use violence when a big change unexpectedly

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The new culture ultimately saved him and this shows the positive effects colonialism can have on someone. Nwoye struggled with knowing who he was as a person. Nwoye felt like he didn’t belong to his family/clan.” If any one of you prefers to be a woman, let him follow Nwoye now while I am alive so that I can curse him.

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William Hazlitt, a renowned 19th century author, highlights in his famous text “On the Want of Money” his ideas on money and how it plays a part in how a person lives their life. Hazlitt presents the case that money cannot buy happiness as it superficial, but yet life without money will ultimately end in sorrow and “to be scrutinized by strangers, and neglected by friends.” By his extreme control over rhetorical strategies such as diction, syntax, and imagery Hazlitt was able to accurately portray his beliefs on the effect of money on people. The most potent strategy in Hazlitt’s delivery is his diction; he uses this to stress the importance of wealth.

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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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Manhood is being treated as a human of mankind. Okonkwo, however, equates manhood to brute force and anger. Anything else was considered to be characteristic of a woman. It is this idea of manliness that pushes Nwoye into the hands of the missionaries. Okonkwo “wanted Nwoye to grow into a tough young man” and although Nwoye at times acted as if he was annoyed with the tasks the women would ask of him, “nothing pleased Nwoye now more than to be sent for by his mother or another of his father's wives” (Achebe, 36).

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“Although Nwoye had been attracted to the new faith from the very first day, he had kept it a secret. ”(112) He was afraid to be different and show who he really was. He was always around when they would preach and he even started to remember some of the stories they told. Eventually he was tired of hiding it and when he just couldn’t handle his father anymore he ran away.

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Nwoye prior to the European colonists didn’t fully go along with everything his father Okonkwo had taught him to continue his clan ways and traditions. The invasion of the European settlers threatened to extinguish the need for the mastery of traditional methods for the igbo people. This reason is why the invasion was disliked by many, but some clan members chose to go about this impact with a positive outlook and were willing to adapt to the new culture, christianity. Nwoye chose to be open minded and seeked acceptance towards the new culture instead of continuing to try and follow the cultural norms of his own religion. Ultimately Nwoye Converted from his religion of the igbo community to the religion of the European settlers.

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This was a notable trait found in Nwoye throughout the book during pre colonization. Another contrasting view found at the beginning of the book for Nwoye is when Nwoye reverts to his former gentle nature after his role model and brother Ikemefuna gets murdered, instead of sticking to the falsified masculine one he pretended to have in Ikemefuna’s appearance. Increasingly, Okonkwo comes to view Nwoye as a disappointment and extremely effeminate. After the arrival of the missionaries and the process of colonization is the turning point of Nwoye's character development. Proof of this is found in (pg. 133) when the reader can see Nwoye's true intentions of why he decided to convert, “It was not the mad logic of the Trinity

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“He dared not to go too near the missionaries for the fear of his father”(149/9). This shows how Nwoye was during the whole novel, he was afraid. The new culture challenged him and changed him for the better. “ He would return later to his mother and his brothers and sisters and convert them to the new faith”(152/8). Nwoye was prepared to change the rest of his family as well.

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The Search for Nwoye’s Identity. Our lives leads us in different directions. Nwoye at first struggled with identity, but then he found himself through Christianity. For the first time he desired something other than satisfying his father.

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When Nwoye decides to leave his family to pursue his faith, Okonkwo realizes “But he left hold of Nwoye, who walked away and never returned.” Leaving his family and clans, Nwoye is confronting a huge change in his life. This change may be pretty hard to make because he has to discover a new world himself. Recalling at the very beginning, it is impossible for Nwoye to leave because he is not masculine enough to take his own adventure. However, now, he is no longer a boy relied on his family; rather, he becomes a mature man to decide his future path himself and accept his coming of age.

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Nwoye, although he is a male, is viewed as a very feminine character. Okonkwo’s dislike of “a woman for a son” (153) pushes Nwoye to the Christian Church and Okonkwo’s actions show the imbalance of respect and the dislike of women in a patriarchy. Although he is viewed as “womanly” and weak, Nwoye gains power through the Christian Church, joining “effeminate men clucking like old hens” (153). Indeed, the white religion is viewed as womanly also; however, the Christian religion proves to be a powerful force in changing the masculine ways of the Ibo tribe. This change symbolizes the influence and powerful impact women can have on traditional and masculine thinking.

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"That was the kind of story that Nwoye loved. But he knew that they were for foolish women and children… [that he] no longer cared for women's stories" (Achebe 46,47). Nwoyes' identity was subjected to gender stereotype that he feels like he has to play a role in order to satisfy his

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Nwoye as young man suffered under his father 's high standards and chooses to branch away from the Igbo cultures religion and go rogue as christian to seek who he really is. All throughout Nwoye 's childhood he was looked as the lazy one and was looked down upon by his own father and the community. Nwoye

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Similarly, Nwoye also resists the reputation of his own father by rejecting this masculine regime of Okonkwo and Igbo culture, showing feminine virtues instead. His intention to carry his beliefs on to his children is established when Okonkwo thinks to himself after he learns of Nwoye’s conversion to Christianity. Nwoye made the decision to leave Umofia after the realization that his views do not coincide with those of his society any longer due to the life time of exposure to the toxicity of Okonkwo’s masculine behavior. It is because he refuses to conform that Nwoye wishes to alter the reputation of himself and his family by joining a culture that he finds to reflect the values that he believes in, instead of those he was dejectedly forced into following by his

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