The Unraveling of a Culture
In Things Fall Apart, the missionaries bring with them to the village of the Ibo people a mindset and a way of living that the villagers were never previously exposed to. The missionaries provided the villagers an unexpected alternative to the culture and beliefs that they had grown accustomed to throughout their lives. Surprisingly, many more villagers came to accept the alternative than one would initially expect. At the same time, there were plenty of villagers who were opposed to the severance that the missionaries had come and caused within their culture, including one of its most respected warriors. The major, and perhaps most obvious disruption that the arrival of the missionaries had on the villagers throughout …show more content…
The son of aforementioned Unoka, early in life Okonkwo was recognized as one of the most respected warriors in his culture, and Achebe notes that his success was not seen by the Ibo as luck, but because “one could say that his chi or personal god was good” (p. 27), Achebe also hints at a man possibly abusing his power using his chi, saying “But the Ibo people have a proverb that when a man says yes his chi says yes also” (p. 27). Okonkwo goes on to make decisions throughout his life that result in him falling more and more out of favor with the rest of the people in his village. These decisions usually centered around the fact that he was putting too much emphasis on being masculine and not enough on the important trait of being kind and affectionate as his culture strongly suggested he …show more content…
However, there are still those like Okonkwo who seem to bring the opposite of peace and kindness with them wherever they go. The unraveling of his personal life throughout Things Fall Apart seems to mirror the unraveling of the Ibo culture and their religious beliefs, but obviously on a much smaller scale in his individual case. As is the case now in the 21st century and has always been the case, when options are presented to the people of the village that they never had previously, of course human nature will take charge and some people will be curious to learn more about these options and then a portion of that group will like what they have learned and claim it as part of their lives. This is exactly what happens in Things Fall Apart, especially with the influence the missionaries have on the religion of the villagers. The missionaries state their case peacefully, and despite accusing the people of Mbanta of wasting their entire lives worshipping false gods, the peaceful approach is enough to influence the villagers enough to have a “religious and cultural identity crisis”, easily the single most important disruption that the missionaries have on these
In Things Fall Apart, the missionaries bring with them to the village of the Ibo people a mindset and a way of living that the villagers were never previously exposed to. The missionaries provided the villagers an unexpected alternative to the culture and beliefs that they had grown accustomed to throughout their lives. Surprisingly, many more villagers came to accept the alternative than one would initially expect. At the same time, there were plenty of villagers who were opposed to the severance that the missionaries had come and caused within their culture, including one of its most respected warriors. The major, and perhaps most obvious disruption that the arrival of the missionaries had on the villagers throughout …show more content…
The son of aforementioned Unoka, early in life Okonkwo was recognized as one of the most respected warriors in his culture, and Achebe notes that his success was not seen by the Ibo as luck, but because “one could say that his chi or personal god was good” (p. 27), Achebe also hints at a man possibly abusing his power using his chi, saying “But the Ibo people have a proverb that when a man says yes his chi says yes also” (p. 27). Okonkwo goes on to make decisions throughout his life that result in him falling more and more out of favor with the rest of the people in his village. These decisions usually centered around the fact that he was putting too much emphasis on being masculine and not enough on the important trait of being kind and affectionate as his culture strongly suggested he …show more content…
However, there are still those like Okonkwo who seem to bring the opposite of peace and kindness with them wherever they go. The unraveling of his personal life throughout Things Fall Apart seems to mirror the unraveling of the Ibo culture and their religious beliefs, but obviously on a much smaller scale in his individual case. As is the case now in the 21st century and has always been the case, when options are presented to the people of the village that they never had previously, of course human nature will take charge and some people will be curious to learn more about these options and then a portion of that group will like what they have learned and claim it as part of their lives. This is exactly what happens in Things Fall Apart, especially with the influence the missionaries have on the religion of the villagers. The missionaries state their case peacefully, and despite accusing the people of Mbanta of wasting their entire lives worshipping false gods, the peaceful approach is enough to influence the villagers enough to have a “religious and cultural identity crisis”, easily the single most important disruption that the missionaries have on these