Essay on Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

In Things Fall Apart, when the missionaries first come to Umuofia, Okonkwo is very adamant in resisting their ways. He refuses to conform to them and holds fast to his traditional beliefs. He believes that Christianity is “womanly” and his own practices

The evangelists are very accepting, as they take in the osu, outcasts from the clan. They offer salvation along with freedom, which Nwoye has been searching for for a long time. However, because of Nwoye’s action, Okonkwo disowns him. Later, when Obierika goes to visit Okonkwo, he finds that “Okonkwo [does] not wish to speak about Nwoye.” Moreover, Okonkwo tells his other children that “if any one of [them] prefers to be a woman, let him follow Nwoye” (Achebe, 172). Okonkwo then asks himself how he could have “begotten a woman for a son” (Achebe, 153). According to Okonkwo, Nwoye has become weak because he has joined another religion. Since Okonkwo believes he is the most masculine man in Umuofia, it is unbearable that his child turned out to be such a failure. This unbearable change in his family creates a ripple effect of events that become worse and worse for Okonkwo.

Post colonialism deals with cultural identity in colonized societies and the ways in which writers articulate that identity. Things Fall Apart is a good novel that serves as a reminder of what Nigeria once was. It shows how a society can deal with change, how change affects the individuals of that society, and how delicate a change can be; so much so that the people themselves are surprised at the change.

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

In the book Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, we are able to read about the social changes the white missionaries had on an African tribe. Mr. Achebe describes the way of life before the missionaries arrived and then records some of the changes, which occurred due to the changed belief system introduced by these missionaries.

Introducing a new religion has the potential to bring a society to its demise because it has the ability to break apart families. This is evident when Nwoye, Okonkwo’s son, converts to Christianity, going against his father’s will. In Umuofia, abominations are taken very seriously. Okonkwo wants to be seen as the perfect role model of Umuofia; when he discovers that Nwoye becomes a convert, which is an abomination in his society, he gets frustrated because he is afraid of losing people’s respect.; he desires to command respect because he does not want to lose his authority within society. As a result, he warns his children by saying “ ‘You have all seen the great abomination of your brother. Now he is no longer my

Furthermore, Okonkwo’s fear of being weak and resembling his father, forces him to act without compassion, and he suffers the “loss” of his son, Nwoye. Like Unoka, Nwoye is effeminate and sensitive. After Ikemefuna dies, Nwoye notices that he feels the same as when he saw twin babies left to die in the Evil Forest, “Then something had given way inside him [Nwoye]” (62). Nwoye is an innocent child who is baffled by the cruel rituals of his clan. He loses respect for Okonkwo and the traditions of his clan. He is unable to forgive his father for killing his adopted brother and unable to forgive his clan for allowing Okonkwo to do so. When the missionaries come to Umuofia Nwoye is intrigued by Christianity, a better way of life, where he feels relief. Strict and inflexible, Okonkwo is angered by Nwoye when he finds out that he converted to Christianity, because Nwoye abandoned their ancestors and he thinks the missionaries are effeminate. Later, Okonkwo tells his five other sons of Nwoye: “You have all seen 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). Okonkwo disowns his eldest son, Nwoye, because he betrays the clan. Okonkwo’s inability to be compassionate and understanding, drives Nwoye away, and he loses his eldest son.

The missionaries needed land to build their church and houses, so the Ibo men gave them a portion of the Evil Forest with the beliefs that they would be die quickly. Once time passes, none of the missionaries die, which implants questions in to the Ibo tribe about their own faith, and the missionaries win their first three converts. Okonkwo was staunch in his own religion, and primarily hated that the tribe was so weak that many people kept converting to Christianity. Okonkwo was “deeply grieved… He mourned for the clan, which he saw breaking up and falling apart and he mourned for the warlike men of Umuofia, who had so unaccountably become soft like women.”

When the new religion is brought over by the white men, Okonkwo strongly opposes to it because he felt that its qualities display weakness and would destroy the Ibo culture. He refused to change and stuck to his old ways, but as more and more of his clansmen convert, Okonkwo sees his world start to crumble. “Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer stand as one” (Achebe 176). His clan slowly divides into two clear-cut sides, but the Ibo people didn’t want to fight back the new religion. As a result, Christianity took over everything, from the government, to the judicial system. Feeling powerless, Okonkwo commits his final act of vengeance and kills a messenger, committing suicide soon after. If the Umoufia had tried to fight back Christianity, they wouldn’t have loss so much power this quickly. This reluctance was due to the absence of

In Things Fall Apart, Christianity is introduced to Umuofia; however it does not settle in well with the tribes already

In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the differences between Christianity’s culture and Umuofia’s culture are quite broad. The most obvious difference is what is worshipped; Christianity worships God while Umuofia worships their ancestors. The trials are a great example of Umuofia's ancestry worship; They hold so much respect for their ancestors that they have their elders dress up as them. Christianity worships only God and no other, and they believe that when you die - as long you have accept Jesus Christ as your lord and saviour - you go to and Heaven not come back as spirits. Also, Umuofia judges success on strength village while Christianity is more about peace. For example, Okonkwo gained a lot of his faim in Umuofia when he threw the

This passage, found as a conclusion to a chapter in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, takes place after Okonkwo's return to Umuofia. A new English missionary has been set up in the village and has caused a great divide between the villagers. The main purpose of the section is to describe some of these events and changes that have taken place in Umuofia since Okonkwo's return. The passage is structured in three parts, each detailing about a different aspect. The first section focuses on Okonkwo's son Nwoye's conversion to Christianity and subsequent successes. The second part goes into detail about Okonkwo's arrival home to his clan and the change in the village. Finally, the last section includes Okonkwo's inner feelings and opinions

I believe it was the great and powerful Napoleon Bonaparte who once said, “In the long run, the sword is always beaten by the spirit”. Bonaparte was not merely referring to the fact that the spirit of the people is stronger than the might of the sword, but he was also referring to the fact that there is no such thing as true oppression. It is this same misleading oppression that we can see happening in the modern day continent of Africa. The African people have lived through “the complexes of denigration and self-abasement” (Achebe). In Chinua Achebe’s book, Things Fall Apart, he tries to help his ‘society regain belief in itself and put away’ these complexities. For Achebe the African image still has hope, and it is through the

Change impacts everyday life, to the big picture in people's lives. People have dealt with change for ages. It is a challenge that people must face at some time in our lives. In Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart, he shows the effects of change on a civilization of people and their ways of dealing with it. It shows the story of the Igbo people and their story of change from colonization. From the arrival of Christian missionaries, things began to change for these people, they had to learn to deal with a new culture, turbulent results followed. Achebe portrays a positive change through constructive institutions and a peaceful religion, however with negative tradeoffs such as racist hierarchical problems.

Mr. Brown presents the compassionate ways of the Christian faith which is attractive to several people in Umuofia. Christianity offers an alternative way of living for many of those who have faced oppression and abuse by individuals following the Igbo religion. For instance, Nneka “had borne twins [for four pregnancies], and they had been immediately thrown away [every time]” since twins were considered an abomination of nature (151). The plain diction creates an apathetic tone which gives the readers further insight into Nneka’s pain. In a society where a