How Does Okonkwo Lose Their Religion In Things Fall Apart

Religion is not a lighthearted issue. One may spend a lifetime believing in a greater power and can never see the liklihood another deity is even possible. Yet the European missionaries speak down to the Ibo tribe in an attempt to break them away from their religious beliefs. Degrading the gods in which the Ibo people have already devoted themselves to, the European men claim that their gods are “made of wood and stone” (Achebe 146) and therefore incapable of saving anybody in the afterlife. The missionaries depersonalize the religion as the first step to destroying their religion. Denying the religion as legitimate takes away its attitudes and thus begins the fall apart of the generations old traditions. The followers of Christianity later …show more content…
Okonkwo did not want to die in debt and a failure like his father, but instead a well respected man with material goods. A successful, he had the respect of Umuofia for his wrestling career, “a large barn full of yams and he had three wives. And now he was going to take the Idemili title, the third highest in the land” (6). This self-made man had grown to be a well-respected personality in the eyes of the public. Born poor, Okonkwo had spends his whole life trying to earn the respect he desires and thinks he deserves, putting a tremendous amount of effort to make sure that he will not go unnoticed years after he is dead and gone. If he were to achieve this he would have left behind a legacy and people may even hear about him generations into the future. However, following the British government taking over the Umuofian people, they reduce Okonkwo’s life and achievements down to nothing following his death. The commissioner acknowledges Okonkwo as an interesting read that “One could almost write a whole chapter on” (208), or just a “reasonable paragraph” (209). The Commissioner had reduced Okonkwo’s life by ignoring his accomplishments and assuming he is another savage who must be saved from the society he had dedicated his life to. Therefore in the grand scheme of things, Okonkwo’s efforts to leave behind a legacy has all for nothing since nobody would be around to tell the world of the great strides he put into his life. Achebe includes the irony of going through a novel to describe this man’s life to finish the book by stating he deserves no more than a paragraph only influences the title Things Fall Apart in relation to Okonkwo’s life. He can have a great life but it has to come to an end. Even when greatness is achieved, it would eventually succumb to the harshness of life and that it may