Things Fall Apart-Chinua Achebe
In the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, we see the effect the white missionaries had on an African tribe. We see their way of life before the change occurs and the way they live their life after. The main thing that happens after the arrival of the missionaries is that the tribe falls apart. The main reason for this is the coming of the missionaries, who bring with them new ways of life, and mostly better ways of life. Achebe tries to show us that the missionaries showed people who were hurt by the beliefs of the tribe that this did not have to go on in their religion, and that’s the main reason why people switched to their religion.
Achebe shows us that the tribe had many wrong beliefs before the missionaries came. They believed that twins are evil and should be thrown away immediately, they believed that sacrifice is a good way to bring peace and they had many other beliefs that do not look good to us today but looked perfectly regular to them. When the missionaries came to their land, people hated them, but when the started getting people to go their way, the Ibo started to fall apart. The missionaries came and told people, like women whose twins were left to die in the forest, that they don’t have to kill their children the next time they have twins if they join them and their religion. This made many people think that they took the evil people out of the tribe but in fact they were gaining power by getting a lot of people to follow them. For example, there was a girl named Nneka who had, several times, given birth to twins who were thrown away. Achebe says,
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Nneka had had four previous pregnancies and child-births. But each time she had borne twins, and they had been immediately thrown away. Her husband and his family were already becoming highly critical of such a woman and were not unduly perturbed when they found out she had fled to join the Christians. It was a good riddance (p.151).
This shows us the Achebe understands and is not surprised when the women fled with the Christians. We can see that because when he says that her family was not “unduly perturbed when they found out she had left”, this tells us that he didn’t really care about the people who left. He understood why they left but as he said it was a “good riddance”. As we see, it is highly understandable why the people who were hurt fled from the tribe in search of a better life.
Achebe shows us another reason for the success of the missionaries was that they told people who were hurt before that they don’t have to be hurt again in their religion. There are many examples of people getting hurt in the Ibo tribe, like when Ikemefuna, the young boy, was sacrificed after the women from the Ibo tribe was murdered. Achebe says,
As the man who had cleared his throat drew up and raised his machete, Okonkwo looked away. He heard the blow. The pot fell and broke in the sand. He heard Ikemefuna cry, “My father they have killed me!” as he ran towards him. Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak (pg.61).
This shows us that even Okonkwo the main character has been hurt by the ways of the tribe. When Achebe says that Okonkwo “looked away” he tells us that he was too afraid to look at him, he was hurt real bad by this occurrence. He tried to make this scene very powerful like when he added, “the pot fell and broke in the sand” this shows us how sad this occurrence was and the way it hurt the people who were close to the young boy. But later on when the missionaries come, they told the people that they don’t have to be hurt anymore by their religion, they convince them to join their religion. At the time of the sacrifice, Okonkwo and his first son get hurt but that doesn’t make Okonkwo leave the tribe. It is his son who leaves it later on. We can see Okonkwos’ sons’ and Ahebes’ thoughts, here where Achebe says,
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But there was a young lad who had been captivated. His name was Nwoye, Okonkwo’s first son. It was not the mad logic of the Trinity that captivated him. He did not understand it. It was the poetry of the new religion, something felt in the marrow. The hymn about brothers who sat in the darkness and in fear seemed to answer a vague and persistent question that haunted his young soul-the question of the twins crying in the bush and the question of Ikemefuna who was killed. He felt a relief within as the hymn poured into his parched soul. The words of the dry palate of the panting earth. Nwoye’s callow mind greatly puzzled (p.147-bottom).
This shows us that Nwoye was greatly hurt by the tribes way of life, especially by the sacrifice of Ikemefuna. When Achebe says that Nwoye had questions like why the twins were kille or the “question of Ikemefuna who was killed” this shows us that the young boy had many questions about the horrible ways of life the Ibo tribe had. Another thing that Achebe says is this, Nwoye was greatly puzzled” this tell us that he did not understand why those things were happening and that he was looking for an answer, which he got in the new religion. Then when the missionaries came, he saw a good way out of those ways of life and a way out of that tribe.
Achebe shows us, once again, another way that the missionaries were so successful is that they took all of the outcasts from the tribe to their new religion. All the people that were outcast from the tribe and had nowhere to go were brought in to their religion. This expanded them greatly. This gave them more power. At first the Ibo did not see and threat when those people joined the missionaries. They felt that those people were no good and evil. But later on other people saw how good this religion is, and decided to join them and this broke up the Ibo Clan. For example when people shave their heads off they are kicked out of the clan, but then the missionaries come and tell them that they are not different from the other people. Achebe says,
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The Two outcasts shaved off their hair, and soon they were the strongest adherents of the new faith. And what was more, nearly all the osu in Mbanta followed their example. It was in fact one of them who in his zeal brought the church into serious conflicts with the clan a year later by killing the sacred python, the emanation of the god of water (Pg.157).
This shows us that the missionaries were successful in getting all the outcasts of the tribe to there religion. When Achebe says, “soon they were the strongest adherents of the new faith” this shows us that the missionaries were very successful in getting the outcasts of the tribe. Achebe thinks that those outcasts are evil but he knows that the missionaries are taking them in and that they are growing. This is another reason why they were so successful.
In conclusion, the missionaries brought with them new ways of life. These ways of life were much better for some people of the tribe. Achebe doesn’t care much about the people who left the tribe, but he understands that the missionaries were successful in getting more people to join them. He also feels that they did a pretty good job with doing so and gathered many people who gave them more power. The Ibo tribe, and their religion, were broken up by the missionaries who came and brought with them better and more civilizes ways of life. I think that Achebe thoughts were wrong, if he saw that the missionaries were getting a lot of people to join their tribe I think he should have said something about the tribe becoming smaller and loosing power. He waited to long to say that the tribe was going downhill. But I do understand that he didn’t want to say that the tribe was breaking up, he did not want to say that the missionaries were successful, but he couldn’t help it, the were very successful.
