Things Fall Apart Cultural Analysis

The only way to truly know anything is to be informed about it. No one knows about “their favorite television show” or “the best mall on Earth” until he or she learns about it by either hearing the news or reading about it. Once information is known; it always exists and sometimes changes lives. Although the idea of learning something new seems like a modern day idea, it is prevalent in nineteenth century literature as well. Chinua Achebe, the author of Things Fall Apart, uses the religious cultural collision between the European missionaries and African tribes and its effect on Nwoye to bring out a central theme of religion. When the missionaries arrive in Mbanta, Nwoye is discretely curious to see what they have to offer. Secretly, when the missionaries are first building the church, Nwoye sneaks out and goes to watch them because he finds their religion intriguing. Nwoye has known of no other religion besides his own his entire life. He has no idea there are other religions out there that are very different from the religion he has grown up believing. When he hears of a new religion, Nwoye is interested because he does not even know that other religions are out there. As Nwoye observes in secret the missionaries singing hymn’s, he sees there is something special about them. Through the hymn’s, Nwoye sees the missionaries and their …show more content…
In Things Fall Apart, Nwoye reacts to the religious collisions of his clan and the missionaries by choosing a side to bring out a major theme of religion in the novel. Nwoye is a loving man who does not want to live with the brutality of his clan. He does what is best for him and leaves the clan. Nwoye wants a meaningful life and the new religion that has been introduced to him is very interesting and gives him a purpose he never had before. Sometimes, a purpose and a reason for anything can change a life and turn it into something that is originally supposed to be nothing but a