Cultural Collision In Things Fall Apart

Upon an initial reading of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, it is easy to blame the demise of Okonkwo’s life and of the Umofia community on the imperialistic invasions of the white men. After all, Okonkwo seemed to be enjoying relative peace and happiness before then. He did have a few mishaps; one of them resulted in him being exiled for eight years. Nonetheless, he returned to his home town with high spirits and with prospects of increased success. However, everything has changed. The white men have brought with them a new religion and a new government. Okonkwo’s family falls apart. The men in his village lose their courage and valor; they do not offer any resistance to the white men. Consequently, Okonkwo kills

Throughout the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo is affected by colonialization which caused a dramatic change that affected his cultural sense and identity. This can be seen through the desertion of his family and being exiled from his own tribe from the overload of new traditions that are being forced upon him and his tribe by the white man. To begin with Okonkwo reacted harshly to the sudden shift in colonization and culture. Such as his murder of his friend, which caused an upset to Nwoye; Okonkwo did this to prove his strength to his tribe. Due to Okonkwo’s choices he was exiled from his tribe to Mbanta proving Nwoye right calling his father womanish and spineless.

From the bad perspective of Okonkwo, he is known as the value of the igbo people, but he had accidentally shoot Ezeudu son during his father funeral, and soon died after he was shot. And later, his tribe decided to exiled him from Umuofia for 7 years because of the incident the incident and his wrong doings. Which have him, his wives and children to move away from the exiled. But luckily, Okonkwo mother family was able to help take care of him and his families through his

Okonkwo soon learns about this and confronts his son, Nwoye about his secret meetings, Okonkwo soon becomes enraged and disowns his son after hearing about his experience not before abusing him of course. This action causes an effect which ultimately leads to Okonkwo’s downfall. Okonkwo enraged by the spread of Christianity within his own village self-proclaims war on the “white man”. Okonkwo eventually was detained as a result of his actions towards the “white man”. After he was released from detainment Okonkwo killed a courier and began to truly understand he was a rebel without a cause as his fellow Tribesmen would not help him with his internal struggle. Okonkwo knowing, he would be caught and executed for his crimes, instead decided to ultimately end his own life by hanging himself. Okonkwo’s major downfall in the story was his inability to co-exist with the white man and began his own personal vendetta against the Christian missionaries. Throughout the story the main essential theme Achebe tried to relay to us would be the fact that even though individuals may be of different religions, skin color, and have different personalities there is a realization that

The destruction of Okonkwo was revealed slowly throughout the books. He started to make some poor decisions, which became the beginning of his downfall. He killed Ikemefuna just because he didn’t want to be thought weak. He made unwise decisions to only appear to be strong and manly to others in the village. He did not realize how he lost so much from living that way. When, Okonkwo kills Ogbuefi Ezedu’s son, the real tragedy begins. Other tragic heroes usually have a steadier downfall, but Okonkwo had a direct fall in society due to this event. This puts his family into exile for seven years. After a short period of time, white missionaries arrive to Umuofia. When “The

Ever seen something that may look odd to you? Or someone that shows up and you seem to wonder why they’re doing what they’re doing? Do you feel a little unpleasant about their actions? That’s totally normal, because that’s what we call cultural collision. In the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, he shows how cultural collision affected the Ibo culture in Nigeria because of colonization and the arrival of Europeans who brought forth a new religion, a new lifestyle and ways that challenge the Ibo culture. The conflict in Things Fall Apart is the struggle between change and tradition. Chinua Achebe demonstrates Okonkwo’s daily life as a struggle to resist changing from

We take a look at his personality and see that he had a warrior complex and machismo. For example in the novel on page 158 paragraph six it says “let us not reason like cowards.” His warrior complex turns everything he does like a battle plan. He wants there to be a fight or else they are not doing it right. Okonkwo’s machismo makes everyone else who is not like him not a man. In the book we see this on page 26 paragraph two “this meeting is for men.” He did not want to listen to the man because he was not well known like him and he did not have as many titles as okonkwo did. Both of these traits aided in the way he responded to the new culture.

For all of his desire to be strong, Okonkwo is caught up by the constant fear of being perceived as weak. He is afraid of failure and afraid of being considered weak. This fear drives him to do whatever he can to not become a failure like his father which ironically contributes to his death. While Okonkwo was a strong and important figure in his tribe, he had to keep his reputation that way by making some hard decisions. One of them was when he had to kill Ikemefuna, a young boy from the neighboring tribe. Okonkwo started accepting the decision to kill Ikemefuna because he started to call Okonkwo father. He had to keep his own valor intact and kill the boy to prevent himself from showing any weakness, but deep down, Okonkwo was really upset because of what he did which was ironic, “’When did you become a shivering old woman,' Okonkwo asked himself, 'you, who are known in all the nine villages for your valor in war? How can a man who has killed five men in battle fall to pieces because he has added a boy to their number? Okonkwo, you have become a woman indeed.'" (Achebe 65). He continued to roll downhill when the white man comes to try and convert Okonkwo’s tribe. Okonkwo responds by killing one of the messengers that were sent. This cause Okonkwo's own tribe to question his actions. “"Okonkwo stood looking at the dead man. He knew that Umuofia would not go to war. He knew because they had let the other messengers escape.

In Things Fall Apart there are many cultural collisions created by the introduction of Western ideas into Ibo culture. Through careful examination about the character Okonkwo in the novel “Things Fall Apart”, by Chinua Achebe, we come to realize Okonkwo was in fact un-accepting of the cultural collision. Okonkwo was sadly unable to adapt to the new society that was set forth to him.

Okonkwo was the main character in “Things Fall Apart”. He was respected and revered by all as a man willing to fight for his people. However his eagerness

He was afraid of being thought weak”(Achebe 61). Moreover, Okonkwo eventually takes his own life for the sake of masculinity: “Then they came to the tree from which Okonkwo’s body was dangling, and they stopped dead”(Achebe 207). Okonkwo was a man who loved his village, and respected within it, however, he could not stand to see the people in the village become “feminine,” and weak after being taken control of by the

He gave up and took his own life. Okonkwo did not understand enough to cope with this change of him not being a strong leader anymore, all Okonkwo knew about being successful was what the Igbo culture had taught him and what his father did not do. Since his village was changing he didn't know how to transition he was so afraid of failing , he felt shameful of himself and his village for not fighting for what they had once believed in and lived for. Rejection also affected Okonkwo he did not understand what happened to his people why they lost the strive to fight, this saddened him because to him his village was what made him the great warrior he once was. Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart shows how much a culture and religion can have an effect on everyday lives , growing up and only getting taught one way of life is very hard for any person to transition into mostly if you are not taught or not able to understand something new or different.

Even around his family which he raises with fear. This will be important later when okonkwo experiences new culture for the first time. The purpose of this essay is to narrate Okonkwo’s character and how he reacts to the new culture.

Okonkwo, as well as many other characters, had a cultural collision when the white missionaries came to Mbanta in chapter 16. What the Ibo didn’t know was that the missionaries were slowly gaining control of the Ibo tribe in Mbanta. The missionaries were building churches, schools, and bringing over their own laws. This meant the missionaries were teaching the Ibo what they wanted the Ibo to know and believe. The missionaries also brought the death penalty with them in the process. They had done all of these things intentionally, without considering the Ibos customs. Okonkwo, unlike the others, had a very hard time adapting to the ways that the missionaries had brought over.

Okonkwo was always an “in-the-moment” person, meaning that he never thought before he acted, which consequently lead to him being punished by society and disobeying laws and beliefs. He didn’t follow the rules of “peace week” which caused the Ibo people to put blame on