Jefferey Meyers Culture And History In Things Fall Apart

As many Umuofians are starting to shun the traditions, Okonkwo hopes that he can continue believing in Ibo culture’s ancient customs; however, the colonialists also influence him to act differently. Okonkwo has always been known to be “[impatient] with unsuccessful men” because his father was a humiliation (4). In Achebe’s writing, the readers can tell how Okonkwo wants to be everything his father was

Throughout his exile, Okonkwo wracks his brain for ways to immediately inherit a position of high rank upon his return to Umuofia. He plans to immediately marry off his daughters to wealthy men when in Umuofia in hopes of gaining power through a wealthy union. Okonkwo’s sole concern to prove that he is strong and successful, unlike his “weak” father, reveals the importance the Igbo place on social status and appearance. The Igbo clearly follow a hierarchy and those who gain positions of power are those who are wealthy and successful. As previously mentioned, Simon Gikandi explores the importance of the yam in African cultures. Gikandi writes, “But in reading Things Fall Apart, everything became clear: the yam was important to Igbo culture, not because of what we were later to learn to call use-value, this time at the University of Nairobi, but because of its location at the nexus of a symbolic economy in which material wealth was connected to spirituality and ideology and desire” (Gikandi 4). With material wealth came power within the Igbo society, therefore, it can be said that material wealth is tied with the core of Igbo belief and culture. Okonkwo’s return to Umuofia emphasizes this belief through his thorough plan to gain high social status which includes having his friend Obierika sharecrop his yams during his exile. Wehrs brings

For example in The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger it states: “ For no apparent reason, except that a so-called oracle suddenly demanded it.” This quote shows how the District Commissioner does not understand the job that the oracle has. The Ibo people use the Oracle when there is a misfortune or when they have a dispute with their neighbors. In the case of Ikemefuna it was a dispute with neighbors, and they used a human sacrifice instead of going to war with each other. I believe that Okonkwo did go against the internal logic of the Ibo by taking part of killing a boy who he looked at as a son. If the oracle is supposed to be obeyed, then Ikemefuna must

People may think that it is cruel when a man beats his children or wife, when in reality this may be a custom of their culture, and is not cruel but different. In Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, the made-up Umuofia is an African clan that is home to people who have customs, traditions, and languages that are not familiar to Westerners. Instead of completely ignoring the qualities that make this clan so special, the author is able to incorporate their culture and lifestyle into the novel. The cultural hints are worked seamlessly into the story and help the reader build a better picture of Umuofia and the people that live there. The author confirms his knowledge of the culture by using authentic

‘’Things Fall Apart’’ novel tries to re-erect cultural, social as well as spiritual basics of traditional Igbo (Ibo) existence from the year 1850 and 1900. Conversely, the novel cannot be inferred like truthful societal and political olden times of Ibo society since it is a work of invented story. However, the novel describes disagreements and apprehensions in Igbo society. It also depicts changes initiated by colonial ruling and Christianity. The author asserts that European colonialism operates as a powerful as well as well-built mediator of the change within Ibo society (Achebe, 2000). Additionally, Christianity attracted the trivial associates of the Igbo society. Igbo and other societies were altered considerably due to this variety of deal with Europeans. A few societies expanded in dimension and authority as marketable centers, whereas others go through great losses in the course of slave invasion. Hostility get higher, and conflict tactics distorted due to the coming of weapons.

He evokes our minds to question the morals of the story and how morally incorrect that society would have been considered today, even back then when the missionaries came to promote the christian belief. Despite the fact that men, even in Europe they mistreated women, was not as extreme as in Nigeria where they could end up killing their wife. Both the male tribe members of the village and the missionaries, through the books and research on the timeframe, showed that both sides despite the contrast in their way of living marginalized women in society but in their own way. Even though women were not as severely punished in European society, they were still not given the opportunities of important roles in society, unlike the Igbo tribe. Also, the contrast with Igbo men and Christian men was that the Igbo believed in having several wives, while Christian men only believed in having one. The conflict

In such a small village, damaged crops for one would damage crops for all, therefore, with religion the people will stray away from violence. The Igbo, just like Muslims, Christians, and Jews, the Igbo have a place of worship, making them organized. When Achebe is describing Okonkwo’s household, he states, “Near the barn was a small house, the “medicine house” or shrine where Okonkwo kept the wooden symbols of his personal god and of his ancestral spirits. He worshipped them with sacrifices of kola nut, food and palm-wine, and offered prayers to them on behalf of himself, his three wives and eight children” (2.14). The Igbo worship their gods through wooden shrines like Okonkwo’s, which metaphorically represent the gods themselves and show the significance of their polytheistic religion. The Igbo are very civilized because of their organized religion.

The disintegration of Igbo society and culture is the central to Chinua Achebe’s novel- ‘Things Fall Apart’ and Okonkwo’s family is one of the first victims. As the christian missionaries started persuading people to join their god instead of gods made out of wood and stone, “Okonkwo’s latter son, Nwoye, was among the missionaries in Umuofia.” (p.119) As the missionaries came in, Nwoye decided to heal his parched soul by converting to christianity. This angered Okonkwo because it made him look weak and he hence disowned Nwoye, making things fall apart between them. But, Okonkwo wasn’t the only person for whom things weren’t going that well, traditional Igbo cultures were also threatened by the existence of the foreigners. Traditional Igbo practises

When outsiders encounter a culture unlike their own they tend to make misconceptions about that culture. The British see the Igbo culture as dark and gory. Achebe sees it as a fully functioning society. The Nigerian community may seem odd and not functional when in actuality it is functional. For a society to be functional, it must have a culture as well as properties of a civilization. The British judge it as dysfunctional, but this is irrelevant to whether the society truly is or isn’t functional. The Nigerian society fulfills many, if not all, of the properties of a functioning society. Despite the negative stereotyping of the Igbo culture by the British, Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart shows a fully functioning society.

Things Fall Apart was a fictional story that documented the tragic death of the successful and highly respected Okonkwo, a leader in the Umuofian tribe; and upon further analysis, his death serves as a symbol of a much greater tragedy: the white man’s destruction of an entire culture through a forced societal transformation and conversion into Christianity. However, it is in my opinion that the conversion was a combination of the white man’s imperialistic actions, meshed with the Igbo people’s own transgressions, that led to the death of Igbo culture.

For many years anthropology has held a primarily western ethnocentric point of view when evaluating other cultures from around the world. Recently however, anthropologists have begun taking a more holistic approach when preforming ethnographies. After concluding that all cultures are equal and that no one culture is innately superior to the other anthropologists have not only taken other world cultures into account when studying a new one, but also experimenting with new ways to illustrate a more complete view of that culture. In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart he paints a holistic image of the Igbo people in Nigeria and their culture. This book has given me several insights into what cultural anthropologists do when evaluating and a describing a culture. Within a given culture there are a myriad number of key aspects that anthropologists look towards to help them evaluate it. The foremost of which is their economy, hierarchy, descent, gender, and rituals. I chose Things Fall Apart because it offered substantial information on all of those points of interest. By using fiction and creating characters Chinua Achebe is able to show Igbo culture in its entirety. While other works have been harsh in the criticism of African life Things Fall Apart shows the Igbo for what they were not inherently superior or inferior, rather it is simply snapshot of what life was like among the Igbo culture.

‘’Things Fall Apart’’ novel tries to bring back up cultural, social as well as spiritual basics of traditional Igbo (Ibo) existence from the year 1850 and 1900. The novel cannot be fixed like truthful societal and political old times of Ibo society since it is a work of invented story. However, the novel describes disagreements and apprehensions in Igbo society. It also depicts changes initiated by colonial ruling and Christianity. The author mentions that European colonialism operates as a powerful as well as well-built mediator of the change within Ibo society. Additionally, Christianity attracted the trivial associates of the Igbo society. Igbo and other societies were changed considerably due to this variety of deal with Europeans. A few societies expanded in dimension and authority as marketable centers, whereas others go through great losses in the course of slave invasion. Hostility also gets higher, and conflicts tactics tat are distorted due to the use of weapons.

In the novel, Things Fall Apart, the impacts of colonialism were amazingly apparent in the Igbo society. As the white outsiders moved into the local 's territory, their social qualities changed. Cases of these progressions were apparent in all parts of the Igbo individuals ' lives, in their religion, family life, young children, and the dead. A large portion of the Igboians was annoyed with the colonization of their general public, however, at last, they were totally unequipped for successfully turn around the progressions that had effectively occurred in their general public. As the English colonized the Igbo society, there were a couple of locals who contradicted it, the

Tradition played a huge role in this novel. Okonkwo pretty much lived and breathed his tradition. When his son Nwoye converted to the new tradition, Okonkwo disowned him as his son. Okonkwo was very serious about his tradition and nothing was going to stop him. With the new missionaries coming along, it stirs up everything and then all of a sudden...Things start to fall apart and everything changes. Nyowe does not stay true to his tradition which irritates his father. Okonkwo and friends burned down the missionary’s church because they did not want the new religion to take over. Okonkwo gets thrown in jail and later ends up committing suicide in the forest which means his body is evil and could not be buried with his people. Committing suicide was against their customs. So even though Okonkwo was one of the most elite men in his village, he followed his tradition and customs and stayed true to what he believed in, it was not enough and he ended up dying because he could not handle it anymore. Most of the Igbo people stayed true to what they had believed in and the ones who did not, were punished or even banished from Umofia and were no longer allowed to come back. So the question is, would you stay true to what you believed in even if you knew what the outcome would

True to its title, Chinua Achebe’s tragic story Things Fall Apart follows the collapse of conservative African tradition in the face of European modernism, characterized by the breakdown of communication at both the personal and communal level. Through his novel Achebe explores the theme of alienation in the escalating strain and eventual estrangement of Nwoye from his father and tribe, to expose the deceptive harmony of pre-colonial Igbo society. This is emphasized by the juxtaposition of public principles and private beliefs regarding the superstitious brutality of traditional customs. As Yeats alludes, “the centre cannot hold”, demonstrated when divided loyalties ultimately cause Umuofian society to crumble from within.