Cultural Collision In "Things Fall Apart"

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There are certain things in life that are going to collide or clash. One of these things will be culture and tradition. Cultural collision can be an issue within a family, for example. One person may be from another country and the other from another. Each person will have different cultural traditions that they will have to balance out. Someone may even have to sacrifice their customs for another person. In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo is faced with a cultural collision. He responds by resisting it. Okonkwo realizes that change is inevitable and experiences the injustice of cultural collision. Change is something that comes along with cultural collision. In the novel, Okonkwo’s motherland, Mbanta and fatherland, Umuofia, goes through many transitions once the Europeans arrive. They try to convert the Ibo people to Christianity. The colonization and “the arrival of the missionaries had caused a considerable stir in the village of Mbanta” because they began to alter the traditions of the tribe (Achebe 138). This traditional change has a personal effect on various characters. Okonkwo resists the new religious and political differences because he feels that they are not manly. He also feels that he will not be manly if he chooses to tolerate them. Okonkwo’s intolerance to the cultural change is also due to his fear of losing his social status. The Ibo people are caught between resisting or adhering to the changes. Many villagers are astounded by the new opportunities such as education and trade that come along with the colonization. The new changes have a positive effect on Okonkwo’s son Nwoye. He finds the new religion fulfilling and embraces it in contrast to his father, who is intolerant to the cultural collision. Okonkwo continually tries to fight the changes within the Ibo society even when the clan does not assist him in getting rid of the

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