Dogmatism In Things Fall Apart

Many of us act on habit, whether we realize it or not. We wake up in the morning, dress, and leave the house. Some of us go to work, while others go out on a jog or head to school. When these habits are disturbed, some people become irritable and still try to go about their usual day with little fluidity. If these habits are not altered in the face of this opposition, then the men can be hurt because of their rigidity. In Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe tells the story of a man and a culture that both refuse to change. In doing this, they condemn themselves by becoming vulnerable through their lack of conglomeration and unity against an outside force. Things fall apart in Umuofia because of the belief that the old ways are the only ways, and …show more content…
They have a set way of life and a set of beliefs that everyone must follow, lest they be ostracized. Their dogmatism leads to a slow cracking of the beliefs, in people across age brackets and wealth. Nwoye, the privileged son of Okonkwo, knows that “something had given way inside him” (Achebe 62). He is an early convert to Catholicism, the comparative gentleness of the religion appealing to him. The cracking occurs throughout his whole life and is steadily ignored and beaten at by Okonkwo, who wants a son more like him. Obierika, a wealthy land owner, can also “sound as if [he] question[s] the authority and the decisions of the Oracle” (Achebe 66). This is also allowed to fester, the disbelief making him susceptible to the message of the missionaries as well. The Oracle is a key religious figure that is to be obeyed without question, and in his doubt, Obierika is one of the people that creates dissonance within the Ibo society. In the article ‘The Mental Virtues’ by David Brooks, dogmatism and excessive rigidity are condemned as being against the virtue of firmness in their excess. It is this exact thing that leads to the downfall of the Ibo, leaving them open to religious conversion due to a lack of