Things Fall Apart Turning and Term Paper

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Okonkwo inflexible traditionalism pitted him against his gentle son Nwoye, who joined the Christian European missionaries. In the book, Oknokwo had to participate in a ceremonial human sacrifice and endure a seven-year exile after his gun accidentally killed the son of the deceased warrior Ezeudu. He also lost part of himself when he lost Ikemefuna. Upon returning to the village, he found it torn apart by Western Imperialism. Finally, he commits suicide after decapitating a white messenger who violated his authority.

Okonokwo's demise was brought about by breaking the sacred laws of the clan as well as unsuccessfully fighting against the unjust system of the colonists. He stands as a representation of his entire clan and other similar cultures who, through the centuries, have lost their traditions through the assault of Imperialism. Achebe's book demonstrates that humanity, in both its best and worst cases, is represented in all cultures. Thus, it is imperative for any society that wants to survive to be prepared with all types of cultural intrusions. Ibo is strong as a just and democratic society, a moral code, economic base and arts and music.The society's Achille's heal is that it did not recognize it had to build in a failsafe to combat even stronger outside forces and the ability to meet and adapt to radical change.

To emphasize the importance of this impact on the Ibo by the European autocracy, at the end of Things Fall Apart the narrator reveals the sorriest irony of all: the District Commissioner's mental absorption with a book he is writing, which he hopes to title The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger (Rhoads 73). It was not that the British had "pacified" the violent primitives. Rather it was that they had been too "pacified" to cope with the more "less pacified" Western cultures.

References

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Fawcett Press, 1959.

____. "The Role of the Writer in a New Nation." African Writers on African Writing. Ed. G.D. Killam. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1978. 7-13.

Isichei, Elizabeth. Ibo and Christian Beliefs: Some Aspects of a Theological Encounter. African Affairs 68.271 (1969): 121-134.

Leonard, A.G. The Lower Niger and its Tribes. London: MacMillan, 1906.

Mair, L. An.....