Things Fall Apart Essay

Colonialism is characterized by being something that destroys families and destroys culture. While colonialism is very bad about destroying the profits and structure of families; colonialism does not strip a people of their culture but instead adds the viewpoints and knowledge of the rest of the world to a culture. That being said, colonialism is not something that strips a native people of their soul and culture, but it is something that builds culture and adds to the native soul, however terrible it may be on the people it conquers physically. This leads to my viewpoint that colonialism and new ideas do not deprive a people of their culture and soul, because it can help the oppressed members of a native people, it can stop inhumane and senseless acts of violence,
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe shows a great example of this, In the text it states “He heard Ikemefuna cry, “My father they have killed me!” as he ran towards him. Dazed with with fear, Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid being thought as weak.(Achebe 61)”. That excerpt from Things Fall Apart describes how Ikemefuna was inhumanely killed by Okonkwo, because Okonkwo’s culture would not allow him to look weak. However, after the point in the novel where the village Umuofia is colonized by Europeans moral dilemmas and inhumane killings cease to exist among the tribe, Effectively repairing the Igbo culture.

The arrival of the christian church in Things Fall Apart also gives opportunities to people that were previously oppressed by their culture. In Things Fall Apart it states “He was happy to leave his father. He would return later to his mother and his brothers and sisters and convert them to the new faith. (Achebe 152)”. This text example explains how the church saved Nwoye from the oppression of his father. This leads to a new educated and culturally rich generation that Nwoye takes part