Stripped of Your Culture, Stripped of Your Soul
“A dying culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Lack of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, as well as gentle manners.” Robert A. Heinlein,the dean of science fiction writers, believes. The overthrowing of a culture isn’t just a greed for power and land, but a misunderstanding of hearts. At the turn of the 19th century, white missionaries came to colonize Africa, which began the Scramble of Africa. When they started this movement, they had no consideration for the tradition, and religion of the Native African culture. This doesn’t just happen in Africa, it happens all over the world. In Things Fall Apart, it depicts how the white missionaries stripped the Africans of their culture and what extremes they took without a care of their religion. Also, it shows how once you take away one's culture you take away their soul. …show more content…
One of the most immense situations was towards the back of the book when Okonkwo ends up hanging himself. Achebe wrote, “Obierika, who had been gazing sadly at his friend’s dangling body, turned suddenly to the District Commissioner and said ferociously: “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…”’ (Achebe 208). This explains how Okonkwo who represents or symbolizes the traditional, old generation of Igbo culture felt he was left with no option but to take his own life -- which goes against Igbo culture—because the Europeans were destroying his culture and his own people including his son Nwoye had converted. He could not live in the new world they were creating because he loved his culture deeply. He chose to die just as the Igbo culture would
“A dying culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Lack of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, as well as gentle manners.” Robert A. Heinlein,the dean of science fiction writers, believes. The overthrowing of a culture isn’t just a greed for power and land, but a misunderstanding of hearts. At the turn of the 19th century, white missionaries came to colonize Africa, which began the Scramble of Africa. When they started this movement, they had no consideration for the tradition, and religion of the Native African culture. This doesn’t just happen in Africa, it happens all over the world. In Things Fall Apart, it depicts how the white missionaries stripped the Africans of their culture and what extremes they took without a care of their religion. Also, it shows how once you take away one's culture you take away their soul. …show more content…
One of the most immense situations was towards the back of the book when Okonkwo ends up hanging himself. Achebe wrote, “Obierika, who had been gazing sadly at his friend’s dangling body, turned suddenly to the District Commissioner and said ferociously: “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…”’ (Achebe 208). This explains how Okonkwo who represents or symbolizes the traditional, old generation of Igbo culture felt he was left with no option but to take his own life -- which goes against Igbo culture—because the Europeans were destroying his culture and his own people including his son Nwoye had converted. He could not live in the new world they were creating because he loved his culture deeply. He chose to die just as the Igbo culture would