Vicious Imperialism In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

Umuofia fell apart in society and the potential causes for this fall because it was caused by the changes, the missionaries had brought to Umuofia. They introduced a new religion to replace the original one which helped people in the village together, another way was the white men claiming they had more almighty god and accused the Ibo people praying to false gods. They took dexterous and strong approach to introducing the religion to the village men. When the whites enter Umuofia, many people joined the Christian missionaries, forsaken their fellow tribesmen. This caused disfigurement towards the strength of the villages as whole as many people have left.

During the arrival of the white men to Umuofia, it states in the text, “The missionaries had come to Umuofia. They had built their church there, won a handful of converts and were already sending evangelists to the surrounding towns and villages” (143). This may seem like nothing, but these converts are the result of colonialism. White men begin to impart colonialism on the Ibo people by converting Ibo people to have Christian beliefs as this is what the white men believe in. These new beliefs negatively change Ibo society because it causes them to lose citizens and their civilization to lose power.

Okonkwo’s defiance results in him being alone in his venture for war against the British. He becomes extreme in his measures towards war and ostracizes himself from his people by telling them how feminine they are being by erring towards peace. Okonkwo 's fear of being feminine like his father causes him to become an extremist in his views. This fear and the extremes to which it carries Okonkwo cause him to lose respect and power amongst his people, ultimately leading to his demise. Okonkwo realizes he no longer has control over his people after he beheads a messenger in front of all of Umuofia.

Okonkwo was one of the most famous and fearful member not only of his clan in Umuofia but other nine villages as well. He worked hard to become a renowned and prosperous member of his clan and to break away from the legacy of his father Okoye who was referred to as ‘agbala’, a man who has not won any title and was another word for woman. Okonkwo was not an evil man but his life was dominated by fear of weakness and failure which made him extremely violent and aggressive. He hated everything associated with his father- music, gentleness and laziness. But much to the anguish of Okonkwo, Nwoye embodied most of his grandfather’s traits and this enraged Okonkwo deeply.

This proved to be the worst precedent that Jackson set. Andrew Jackson was a bad president because he only cared about what he liked and disliked. He disliked the Natives not moving so he moved them by force and in the process killed many. He did not like what the National Bank represented so he destroyed it thereby sending the country into a depression. He liked putting his friends in power so he did even if they were out of touch with the common man.

It made Igbo to believe, “praying that the day would not be far when the priest and all his people would turn away from the worship of snakes and idols to the true religion” (AOG: 214). The missionaries promoted Igbo to abandon the ‘snakes and idols’ and join the church to become civilized and find a salvation. The Christianity provided the stronger protection than the deity, Ulu. The Christ is believed to be the strong, merciful and forgiving and Ulu in compare to Christianity is weak and stubborn; the stubbornness of the native deity caused the religious identity. The missionaries declare, “Ulu who is a false god can eat one yam the living God who owns the whole world should be entitled to eat more than one”.

The religion of the community in Things Fall Apart is Igbo, however in this story, Christian missionaries come to try and convert the natives to Christianity. The colonizers wanted to civilize native’s people but instead they created for them a state of continuous Otherness. One important tactical feature inherent in the notion of culture is definitely it’s of differentiating between self and other. And culture plays an important role in shaping the environment. However, native’s culture has been disappearing due to influenced of British missionaries.

The hatred that he had for his father he carried with him throughout his whole life. That hatred turned into him killing Ikemefuna and the messenger. Ikemefuna was thought of as a son and he killed him in fear of being considered weak in front of his clan members. That weakness was thought of his weakness which was considered a failure. At the end of the story Okonkwo ends up being just like his father which is ironic because he strived to be nothing like him.

Okonkwo 's life and eventual suicide occur as the results of universal justice, punishing him for his immense hatred of any cultural change and excessive violence. Okonkwo 's immense hatred of cultural change lead him to suicide as a result of the Igbo idea of universal justice. After his son Nwoye joined the Christians and left Okonkwo and his family, “A sudden fury rose within [Okonkwo] and he felt a strong desire to take up his

(Acehebe, 1958) Though Okonkwo proves an ambitious hero, he is affected by his internal fear that has ruled his entire life. Infact, He deeply fears nothing but himself just because he don’t want to have the feminine and weak qualities like his father Onoka. He is compelled to kill of his step son (Ikemefuna), just