Purple Hibiscus And Things Fall Apart

Okonkwo is eventually defeated when he finds that his physical strength is not powerful enough to overcome the white men, and, unable to accept this, he hangs himself.

Nwoye first begins to undergo changes when the missionaries set up a church.Okonkwo is very against the churches due to his religious beliefs, and would be enraged

 The cultural collision involved with the novel caused Nwoye to convert to Christianity, and helped him find his sense of freedom. Freedom to him meant belief in his religion and  culture without restraints or barriers. By restraints and barriers, what is being talked about is the acute drive for power that Okonkwo drilled into Nwoye’s life, and how he had to live by the “typical man’s” lifestyle. “Nwoye did not fully understand. But he was happy to leave his father. He would

-After Nwoye is lured into the Christian religion and abandons his culture and family, Okonkwo is ashamed and states, "you have all see the great abomination of your brother. Now he is no longer my son or your brother. I will only have a son who is a man, who will hold his head up among my people" (172). Nwoye's father disowns him only because he chooses a path untraditional to his culture. The serious, frustrated, and unhappy mood that is created in Okonkwo's statement gives the reader an idea of how much the Ibo culture values tradition, choice, and family.

Nwoye has an attraction to a new religion and culture. Okonkwo slowly and surely pushes Nwoye away. When the missionaries had arrived it rose curiosity in Nwoye. Nwoye reveals their ways and is attracted to their culture, their

“Although Nwoye had been attracted to the new faith from the very first day, he kept it a secret. He dared not go too near the missionaries for fear of his father” (Achebe 149). Nwoye refuse to go to the church and enter but everyday he would go to the marketplace and list to their short stories. “ And he was already beginning to learn some of the simple stories that they told” (Achebe 150). Eventually Nwoye summons enough courage to enter the church but one of Okonkwo’s cousins was passing by and happened to see him. So he quickly rushed to Okonkwo and told him the news. “Nwoye turned round to walk into the inner compound when his father suddenly overcome with fury, sprang to his feet and gripped him by the neck” (Achebe 151). Nwoye eventually told him where he was and Okonkwo became very angry but then he was overcome with sadness. Okonkwo didn’t know how he could raise such a weak son. The cultural collision not only changed the way Nwoye felt but also his relationship with his father and

Nwoye’s father, Okonkwo angered by Nwoye’s conversion felt that Nwoye had disgraced his elders and his family. Moreover, found himself saying that he was cursed with a Nwoye for a son and that he was just like his grandfather Unoka. “How then begotten a son like Nwoye (Achebe 146).” Nwoye had finally felt free from his father’s stubborn and violent ways when he converted to Christianity. Also in the meantime destroyed any father-son relationship that Okonkwo and Nwoye had but Nwoye was not bothered by the hate from his father.

In this scene, Okonkwo and Nwoye are foil characters. Okonkwo remains to believe in the polytheistic Igbo religion, while Nwoye has chosen to become a Christian. Okonkwo considers Christianity to be a “womanly”, therefore

Later on, his only goal is to get rid of all humans. Ironically, a human ends up killing him in the end. In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo strongly believes in his culture. When Europeans come and take over his land, he takes extreme measures to try and prevent his village from being wiped out. Later on, he kills himself.

The missionaries conflict with everything Okonkwo believes or values. The missionaries are so outlandish to Okonkwo that his first reaction is just to laugh at them. This is shown on page 147, paragraph 4, “ At the end of it Okonkwo was fully convinced that the man was mad. He shrugged his shoulders and went away.” Okonkwo later begins to understand the threat the missionaries pose to his society and passionately speaks for forcing the missionaries out of Umuofia. However when his people will not listen to him, he feels like he is forced to take matters into his own hands. This is shown on page 204, paragraph 7,” Okonkwo’s machete descended twice and the man’s head lay beside his uniformed body”. The Ibo people do not join in on the violence as Okonkwo had hoped, which contradicted with Okonkwo belief that the Ibo were warrior people. This final loss of Okonkwo’s core beliefs is what shatters Okonkwo’s final sense of identity as a man. As Okonkwo is no longer any of the things he has come to identify himself as, and Okonkwo blames the missionaries for this, his final response to the missionaries is to take his own life. Okonkwo's death is shown on page 207, paragraph 3 “ Then they came to the tree from which Okonkwo’s body was dangling, and they stopped dead.” When Okonkwo identity was ripped from him he no longer saw a point in living and his fight with the

Okonkwo despises his father to an extent that Okonkwo strives to be nothing like Unoka. Okonkwo lives his life and his goal is to be one of the high lords of the clan (Achebe 131). Okonkwo’s life goal is to be the opposite of his father, who is seen as a failure in the Ibo society. Unlike his father who did not fulfill the community's ideals of success Okonkwo did, and strives to achieve his whole life to prove that he was not similar to his father, because he does not want to be like someone who he despises. Similarly to Okonkwo, Nwoye does not have a good relationship with his father, because Nwoye does not act like him. Nwoye Knew that he should act violent like his father, but he preferred to be with his mother and listen to stories (Achebe 53). From a young age Nwoye knew he did not want to be like his father, because he did not approve of the way Okonkwo acts thus he rebelled by being like his mother and preferring kindness and stories over violence. Besides not wanting to be violent like his father, Nwoye rebels by converting to christianity. Nwoye converts, changes his name to Isaac and goes to college to become a teacher (Achebe 182). Nwoye converting and changing his name is the ultimate rebellion because he literally changes everything Okonkwo tried to make Nwoye. Okonkwo attempted to make Nwoye a strong man in the eyes of Ibo society just it in turn made Nwoye rebel and turn

Nwoye's decision to leave his family for a different religion causes his father to disown him. When Okonkwo and his family are banished from Umuofia for seven years and have to live in Mbanta, missionaries come to convert the clan to the Christian faith. Most of the clan members reject the missionaries’ offers, but there are a few who are intrigued and eventually join. One of these

The villagers did not see those who had converted as their own anymore. They were now outsiders. Okonkwo tried to lead the villagers against the Christians as wanted them to stand up to the Christians and the missionaries. He was not able to convince them to bring down the missionaries and the new faith. This caused him a lot of grief because he thought that the missionaries were trying to being down their traditions and values. Because Okonkwo was a very strong member of the tribe he could not stand for this. He had to show his power to the missionaries and their followers. Okonkwo felt so strongly about this that he ultimately disowned his own son saying, “You have all seen the great abomination of your brother. I will only have a son who is a man, who will hold his head up among my people. If anyone prefers to be a woman, let him follow Nwoye now while I’m alive so I can curse him. If you turn against me while I’m dead I will visit you and break your neck” (Achebe). This shows the power that Okonkwo had over the people of the village. His threats are so harsh and violent, he could scare the village people into obeying him, except for his son. Nwoye was attracted to the religion and was ready to leave his family and his village because he liked the

“Nwoye was twelve years old but was already causing his father great anxiety for his incipient laziness… he was corrected by constant beating … he was developing into a sad faced youth”. (13-14) This pressure that Nwoye endures prompts him to seek Christianity as a better outlet. It is ironic how Nwoye has the same strong resentment towards Okonkwo just like he himself has to Unoka. The pressure Okonkwo felt to create a revolution essentially backfires as all he created was another

Nwoye most likely remembers the twins he heard thrown in the Evil Forest and intends to be like Isaac, and protect twins and others that the Ibo consider evil. Nwoye has also become a teacher which shows his devotion to Christianity, greater than any devotion he had in Umuofia, whether to working in the fields, his father, or his culture. Mr. Brown's friendly nature is also shown in this section. He heard of Okonkwo returning to Umuofia and "immediately paid him a visit" and "hoped that Okonkwo would be happy to hear of it," referring to Nwoye. Okonkwo, however, drove Mr. Brown away and threatened him. This treatment of Mr. Brown shows Okonkwo's genuine hatred of Christianity that stole his first-born son and any change that has come with it.