Western Influences In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe a Western influence comes into Umuofia and it made Okonkwo angry because he was a very religious believer and was very true to his culture, roots and religion, “Okonkwo never showed any emotion openly, unless it be the emotion of anger,” (28). The Western influences said the people of Umuofia had their religion wrong when they said there was more than one god like the Earth Goddess or the Water God. The Westerners believed in only one God and he did everything, and Okonkwo knew in his heart that that was all phony and his religion was the right one. Okonkwo was mad and angry that they had even showed up in the first place in Umuofia because they should 've kept their religion where it started. When Okonkwo noticed that there was a handful of people he knew from the town converting to the missionaries he didn 't understand how brothers could turn on each other. The theme Chinua Achebe portrays about cultural collision through Okonkwo to give the readers insight that staying true to your roots and religion can make or break who you really are and not to let an outside force change or take that away from you. “ When nearly two years later Obierika paid another …show more content…
“That man was one of the greatest men in Umuofia. You drove him to kill himself and now he will be burned like a dog…” (208). Even up to his death, Okonkwo seemed to be the only one who was really hit by the missionaries showing up and he stayed completely true to himself in his culture and his religion. He knew it was a disgrace to hang himself in their culture but he couldn 't live with the fact that people were converting their religions to join the white