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God In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

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As I began to write my one page essay I realized I could see how God played a personal role in the Characters life and before I knew it I had three pages instead of one. So I decided to shorten my paper for my final and continue to write for my extended essay. One of the things I have loved while being in your class is how we have been able to read stories about Christ, or stories they are reflective of the Gospel. This trimester was no different. In Candide we see men search to find they explanation for how evil and a just God could exist in the same world. In Things Fall Apart we see the comparison of the Igbo tribes and Christian doctrine. Throughout this trimester we have continuously seen how character’s choose to embrace or reject God’s …show more content…
In this story the philosophers take for granted that God exist. The philosophers said people who perceive imperfections in the world do so only because they do not understand God’s grand plan. Voltaire does not accept that a perfect God, or any God for that matter have to exist. He mocks the idea that the world must be completely good. Pangloss and Candide are optimist in this story. They see a vast array of horrible things throughout the story such as rapes, robberies, disease, earthquakes, floggings, and betrayals just to name a few. Obviously theses evils serve no good but only shine a light on the cruelty of humans. Pangloss longs and struggles to find reasons for all the horrible things in the world, but what he finds makes no sense. By the time the story comes to an end Pangloss has been forced to say he does not “believe a word of” his own conclusions. In Things Fall Apart Achebe explores the cultural conflict between the Igbo tribes tradition and Christian beliefs. We see the emphasis of strength in men which reminds us of Solomon in the Bible and his strength. We see how the Igbo’s lived polygamously compared with the Christian faith which believes in one man and one woman. We see the emphasis placed on tradition just like the Igbo’s honor their ancestors, we get to look …show more content…
In Goethe’s Faust we see God’s role in the angels lives, Faust life, and God’s relationship with Mephistopheles. In Things Fall Apart we see the Igbo tribes traditions in comparison with Christian life. And lastly in Candide we see philosophers search to find they explanation for how evil and a just God could exist in the same world. In each of these stories we see how differently humans view and interact with a Holy God. From Faust we see how to chase after God’s heart even in hard times, in Candide we learn to not question God’s sovereignty, and in Things Fall Apart we see that traditions are not better than God’s ways. I’m thankful to walk away from this English class and say that I have grown in my walk with

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