Things Fall Apart Theme Essays

Evidence of this can be seen at the end of chapter 20 in , when Okonkwo’s friend Obierika visits him to discuss the changes that have occurred in Umuofia since Okonkwo was banished. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay.

Evidence of this can be seen at the end of chapter 20 in , when Okonkwo’s friend Obierika visits him to discuss the changes that have occurred in Umuofia since Okonkwo was banished. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay.

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Ezenwa- Ohaeto, in his book , explains that when Achebe’s parents returned to Ogidi in 1935 with their family, the cultural crossroads faced by their society was plainly apparent in that “The storytelling sessions of the oral tradition existed side by side with book-reading sessions in the schools.

The hymn-singing, Bible reading members of catechist Achebe’s family, on one side, faced his traditionalist kin on the other”, clearly illustrating the clashing cultures present in their village at the time and the divide it created between members of the Igbo (Ohaeto, pg 8).

This attack on the Igbo culture was especially successful in the religious field, evidence of which can be seen in that the majority of Igbo people have left their own gods and goddesses for the Christianity introduced through their colonization (Booker, pg 110).

In fact, the time of crossroads of culture that came as a result of the colonizing forces in Nigeria created parallels can be made between the historical attempts against the Igbo religion and the similar fictional attacks in .

From every quarter mighty masquerades came out, by day and by night, to mourn in a ritual called during the annual ceremony to honor the earth deity by a Christian convert, which to the Igbo was seen as an act equivalent to killing an ancestral spirit.

The text explains that “one of the greatest crimes a man could commit was to unmask an in public, or to say or do anything which might reduce its immortal prestige in the eyes of the uninitiated”, illustrating just how divided Okonkwo’s tribesmen were through the introduction of the new religion (Achebe, pg 944).The text explains that Okonkwo was “deeply grieved” by the changes that had taken place in his village, and that his grief was not only for himself, but that he also “mourned for the clan, which he saw breaking up and falling apart” (Achebe, pg 943).Much like Okonkwo, Achebe’s parents, living in an Igbo village during the colonization and creation of Nigeria, saw firsthand many of the changes that were occurring in their homeland and culture and the alienation this caused between tribesmen.In an interview he explained that the cultural limbo he experienced caused him to feel like a “bat in the folk tales- neither bird nor mammal- and one can get lost, not being one or the other” (Cott).Along with the effects the English colonization of the Igbo had on the education and oral literary traditions of the Igbo people, their influence was equally effective in their disintegration of the Igbo people’s religious traditions.This threat on Okonkwo’s identity that comes from the invasion of the Europeans is additionally seen when Okonkwo returns to Umuofia to see these changes himself.Here the narrator expresses that “The clan had undergone such profound change during his exile that it was barely recognizable.Plus, get practice tests, quizzes, and personalized coaching to help you succeed.Try it risk-free Things Fall Apart tells the tragic story of a Nigerian tribesman who holds on to tradition in a changing world.When the white Christian colonizing forces invade his village he sees this as a threat to his and his people’s way of life, and as a result to their identity as Africans.The English bring with them new religion, new language, and new forms of government, that threaten to breakdown the previously established culture that Okonkwo and the other villagers who resist the change have become accustomed to, probably because they see these changes as a threat to what makes them who they are as African people.