Joel Olsteen once said, “We live in a culture that relishes tearing others down.” When
cultures meet, there is almost always and endgame of holding on to full control of everything,
and holding that kind of power comes with the harsh treatment towards others.In Chinua
Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, it can be shown that if a culture shows a lack of sympathy towards
another when colliding, then the society will crumble and fall apart. This is also shown through
the Nazi control of Germany in World War II, and the Nigerian Civil War during the 1960’s.
Achebe’s novel clearly shows the devastation when one shows no sympathy through the
Christian missionaries arrival in the village of Umuofia. When the missionaries first came …show more content…
Specifically, they had come to convert the indigenous people to their sacred religion of
Christianity, and when the societies of Mbanta and Umuofia had been split, it broke them apart.
It caused rifts in families like Okonkwo’s, when his son Nwoye came home and revealed that he
had converted. Okonkwo had always disapproved of his sons actions and how he behaved as a
whole, secretly wishing for him to be more of a man like Okonkwo was. Nwoye had such disdain
for his father towards the end, that it resulted in his confession of “‘I don’t know. He is not my
father,’ said Nwoye, unhappily” (page 144). The fallout between father and son was something
that may have been a long time coming, but ultimately it was the cultural collision that drove
Okonkwo and Nwoye apart. When two very contrasting cultures like that of the Igbo and the
Christians collide, people are bound to take sides. Okonkwo had never showed any sympathy
towards his son, so Nwoye’s conversion only made Okonkwo react harsher towards anything
his son would do or say. On society as a whole, it caused a heavy burden that people had …show more content…
The cultural differences were ultimately what lead to a broken
collision of opinions, but the treatment of the people was certainly not something that helped the
situation Umuofia was in.
Unsympathetic behavior towards another culture can extend past the realms of
literature, as seen through the Nazi’s treatment of Jews during the World War II. There had
been peace and a united sense throughout the world after World War II. However, when Hitler
came into power and influenced numerous groups of people that the Jewish faith was
undesirable and a sickness. The Nazis took the Jews to horrible camps and when the German
and Jewish culture finally clashed, it resulted in thousands of deaths. Around the late 1930’s,
there was propaganda released with the ideas that pure blood Germans were superior to the
inferior Jewish. There were “riots against Jews organized by the Nazis” with casualties including
“1,440 synagogues were burned, at least 91 people were murdered, and 30, 000 Jews were
sent to Dachau, Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen and other concentration camps” (page 1). The
unsympathetic behavior towards the Jewish culture was what cause the horrible loss for
cultures meet, there is almost always and endgame of holding on to full control of everything,
and holding that kind of power comes with the harsh treatment towards others.In Chinua
Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, it can be shown that if a culture shows a lack of sympathy towards
another when colliding, then the society will crumble and fall apart. This is also shown through
the Nazi control of Germany in World War II, and the Nigerian Civil War during the 1960’s.
Achebe’s novel clearly shows the devastation when one shows no sympathy through the
Christian missionaries arrival in the village of Umuofia. When the missionaries first came …show more content…
Specifically, they had come to convert the indigenous people to their sacred religion of
Christianity, and when the societies of Mbanta and Umuofia had been split, it broke them apart.
It caused rifts in families like Okonkwo’s, when his son Nwoye came home and revealed that he
had converted. Okonkwo had always disapproved of his sons actions and how he behaved as a
whole, secretly wishing for him to be more of a man like Okonkwo was. Nwoye had such disdain
for his father towards the end, that it resulted in his confession of “‘I don’t know. He is not my
father,’ said Nwoye, unhappily” (page 144). The fallout between father and son was something
that may have been a long time coming, but ultimately it was the cultural collision that drove
Okonkwo and Nwoye apart. When two very contrasting cultures like that of the Igbo and the
Christians collide, people are bound to take sides. Okonkwo had never showed any sympathy
towards his son, so Nwoye’s conversion only made Okonkwo react harsher towards anything
his son would do or say. On society as a whole, it caused a heavy burden that people had …show more content…
The cultural differences were ultimately what lead to a broken
collision of opinions, but the treatment of the people was certainly not something that helped the
situation Umuofia was in.
Unsympathetic behavior towards another culture can extend past the realms of
literature, as seen through the Nazi’s treatment of Jews during the World War II. There had
been peace and a united sense throughout the world after World War II. However, when Hitler
came into power and influenced numerous groups of people that the Jewish faith was
undesirable and a sickness. The Nazis took the Jews to horrible camps and when the German
and Jewish culture finally clashed, it resulted in thousands of deaths. Around the late 1930’s,
there was propaganda released with the ideas that pure blood Germans were superior to the
inferior Jewish. There were “riots against Jews organized by the Nazis” with casualties including
“1,440 synagogues were burned, at least 91 people were murdered, and 30, 000 Jews were
sent to Dachau, Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen and other concentration camps” (page 1). The
unsympathetic behavior towards the Jewish culture was what cause the horrible loss for