Things Fall Apart Essay Research Paper In — страница 2

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going to live that way. And for the most part his life was completely opposite of his father’s life. Even though they took completely different paths in life, their paths led them to the same place. The reason that the Ibo tribe had changed so much while Okonkwo was in exile for the seven years, was the arrival of the missionaries in Africa. The missionaries accepted people who the Africans believed to be outcasts. The Africans thought that these people they thought to be outcasts would bring bad luck to the missionaries. They also tried to jinx the missionaries by giving them the evil forest to build their churches. When the missionaries were able to survive in the evil forest with the outcasts, the Africans thought that the god of the missionaries was more powerful than their

gods and ancestors. This led many African people to convert to Christianity. Okonkwo could not stand the missionaries, and thought that the Africans should kill them and drive them out of Africa. But he was the only one in the Ibo tribe who felt this way. He tried to convince his fellow tribesmen to go to way against the missionaries, but the would no. This is what caused Okonkwo to kill the guard, who was a fellow clansman and eventually himself. Another of the main ideas going on in the book Things Fall Apart is the difference between communal aspects and individual aspects in a traditional African society. It seemed to me that there were both some communal aspects and individual aspects in the Ibo tribe. The community is very important to the survival of the tribe and the

people often work together for the betterment of the tribe. There are also individual aspects in the Ibo society. Each person has his own chi, or personal god. This personal god is to watch over a person and protect them. Some people have a stronger chi than others, and they will achieve a higher standing in the society. This is very important to some of the people in the tribe, and Okonkwo is one of those people. He does a lot to help better the Ibo society, but he also wants to have a high standing in the Ibo society for himself. Overall I think that Chinua Achebe did a good job of painting a picture of a traditional African society. Many people, especially people from western countries, have no idea of what life is like in an African tribe. I would say that the strength of

this book was the picture that it painted of the Ibo society. Achebe included several different points of view of live in African society. The two different points of view that stick out in my mind are that of Okonkwo and Oberika. Oberika is a good friend of Okonkwo, but the two lead very different lifestyles. Okonkwo is very masculine, while Oberika could be considered more feminine. Okonkwo believes that the Ibo tribe needs to go to war with the missionaries and drive them out. Oberika feels otherwise and thinks that the two groups can coexist happily. Achebe also presented many different issues which are important to African societies. Many of the customs and beliefs that are important to a African tribe were different to me. One of the main beliefs was the belief that twins

were considered outcasts and they were put into the evil forest. But I feel that the way African tribes treat a person who kills a clansman is fair. In American society it seems that many people have been somewhat desensitized to murder. It happens so often that people don’t think much about it unless it directly affects them. In African societies this it the worst crime that a person could commit and will always end up in death for the person who committed the crime. So some of the customs and beliefs in an African society I have a hard time accepting, while others I can easily identify with. From reading this book I learned a lot about what it is like to live in a traditional African society. I must admit that I didn’t know much about African societies before reading this

book, and most of what I believed turned out to be false. Many people would consider a society like the Ibo society primitive. True they might not have many of the technology and conveniencies that we as Westerners have, but do those conveniencies make our lives any better? I do not think that a person should be judged on the number of material possessions they have but what kind of a person they are. Western societies today seem to be very individualistic. Many people seem to look out for themselves and no one else. This is not always true in African societies, many times the community comes before the individual. So I think that there is a lot to be learned from traditional African societies about how to live and how to survive.