In the story “Things Fall Apart”, Chinua Achebe gives information on how their Nigerian culture (Igbo religion) believed in father-son inheritance, farming, traditions, and belief in evil spirits. For someone to believe in something different was like a crime to them. To be Christian was something that Okonkwo didn’t want for his children. It went against his and his family's beliefs. It was also his aggressiveness that was his ultimate downfall, but it stems from the white missionaries who arrive like locusts and start turning the villagers, including Okonkwo's own son, away from their traditional beliefs.
Okonkwo has a strong negative impact/response to the cultural collision. He was known as the king or head of everything. The people in the village looked up to him. Okonkwo’s response to the new culture of course was angry. Not long afterward he was banished (exiled) and when he found out that the western was coming over to do what he planned on doing he didn’t take it well. He acted out and did what he only knew how to do. He acted out of his anger. He realized he no longer had the power he had before being exiled. How far away he was from his people did not sit well with him. The consequences of Okonkwo’s willingness to change led to a “ life or death” situation to where Okonkwo took his son's life. All because of him not wanting to change the way he lived. He didn’t want to be thought of as “weak” like his father was known when growing up as a child. Fast forwarding to the ending of when Okonkwo tragically killed himself, it was also against their beliefs to commit suicide in their village. It was known as being weak-minded. It was against everything to do something like that to yourself. Okonkwo’s role in TFA had a negative impact but his intentions were good but he didn’t know how to handle the situations that he was going through because of his childhood. He warned to protect himself and his family so badly and tried so badly that it affected him negatively because that’s all he knew was negative energy. His father was known as “weak” which you couldn’t be as a man in their village. It was like a sin to be known as “weak”.
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Men in their village had a lot to go through just to be known as strong black men. It was hard enough for them being black but if their people knew them as that or even the Western’s, they wouldn’t be taken seriously the way they wanted people to see them. It was all about the image of themselves that mattered to them the most. They focused sed so much attention on the images of themselves that they didn’t realize how that may have affected their families, the village, and anyone around them for that matter. The women had to deal with the anger the men had afterward. They would get brutally beat and there would never be a consequence for their actions. Maybe the women had it worse than the men did. Dealing with the emotional and mental
One theme of the novel is that inability to adapt to changes can lead to one's downfall. This is shown when Okonkwo hangs himself rather than submit to the laws of the British again. He has struggled with the clash of cultures ever since the missionaries built a church in Umuofia. He often ridiculed those who joined and disowned his son Nwoye when he turned to the church as well. But Okonkwo was still subjected to the laws of the British. Whether this was just or unjust is another matter here highlighting the tragedy of obstinacy.
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Essay on Theme of Family in ‘Things Fall Apart’.
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