"Things Fall Apart" Analyses

Essay by erindaCollege, UndergraduateA, December 2006

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"Things Fall Apart" is a view of changes and the effects that colonialism played with their religion imposition to the Nigerians and how those effects acted on the individuals of the African shore. It serves as a reminder to the people of Nigeria of their heritage of what it was once and how it was after the religion stir brought in by the colonizers.

The Igbos lived by the earth and its seasons without the intrusion of modern ideas. Their society was entirely cyclical. People did not die, but they returned as different manifestations. The Igbo's practiced a cultural polytheistic religion which was steeped in tradition. Village leaders and representations of Gods defined justice. There were festivals for many occasions, many revolving around different cycles of change. They were a people at peace, content with their simple lives. They were not lacking anything the Europeans could offer them.

It is in this commotion of daily Igbo life that makes the arrival of the Christians so much more tragic. The British missionaries introduced novel concepts of education and equality. The status so sought after by Okonkwo and other Igbos were devalued. The equal system was all gone. Africans were on one tier and the colonizers set up as the superior race. The missionaries who came to teach the love of Christianity were the fore bearers of complete colonial rule. The Europeans created enemies within the tribes by converting village members into Christians. The new converts openly rejected old traditions in the Igbo way of life. The Igbos did not know how to deal with this situation. Christianity, a monotheistic religion, had values that opposed Igbo ideals; they almost seemed to mock the Igbo religion. The doctrines of justice as interpreted by the church were forcibly imposed upon the...