All Things Fall Apart Essay

In africa, there are lots of cultures. But there is one specific tribe that is very unique. In All things fall apart, by Chinua Achebe, talks about the ups and downs of being in that culture. It also talks about the Igbo peoples struggles throughout their time. The Igbo people are very nice people who are very cultural and live in the south of Nigeria. They follow a lot of culture that is connected to their spiritual ways. They have very strong beliefs towards gods and goddesses, also they believe in something similar to mother nature. They have a very close relationship with nature. One thing that differentiates them from any other culture would be their ways of living. In the Igbo culture the men are well known for their dominance, how many wives they have, and also the amount of land they have. While the women have to be submissive and have to stay
in the homes taking care of their children and making food. They depend a lot on their farms where they grow their popular food which would be yams. In the farm life they get the men working at any age. The sooner they work the better. “Those who were big enough to carry even a few yams in a tiny basket went with grown ups to farms” (61). Also a lot of the families depended on their titles. The men had to earn their titles by showing that they were aggressive, strong and not scared of anything. The igbo tribe is really a lot to take in when you first learn about it. Moreover to the book All things fall apart, Achebe talks about the people within the tribe and their experiences.
But there is a particular person that is described as the most honorable man in the igbo culture. His name was Okonkwo and he was known for his victories in war. He had various of wives, and children. But based on his past he was not happy with his father, Unoka. “Unoka died he had taken no title at all and he was heavily in debt. Any wonder then that his son Okonkwo was ashamed of him” (8). Since his dad died as a weak man Okonkwo wanted to prove that he was nothing like his dad. Therefor, he was aiming at getting a big title and wanted to be known as a strong powerful man. Later on in the book Okonkwo earned that respect by going to war and bringing his enemies heads. “Okonkwo was not a man of thought but of action. But in absence of work, talking was the next best.” (69). There was a lot of ups and downs of having such a big title like Okonkwo’s. People would look up to him. And he had to present himself as a honorable man to the council who was lead by elders with great respect under their
names. Towards the middle of the book, it starts to talk about the struggles that the igbo people were facing. One of the biggest struggles were the arrival of the Europeans. Achebe was actually relating how the changes before and after affected the ways of the igbo people. The Europeans started to challenge the well known people into believing about their religion. Little by little they started to settle down in their tribe. The Europeans wanted to come in contact with the most well known man in the tribe. The people were scared and didn’t know that to do. The Europeans took over for the most part, and they did some damage. Although it didn’t seem like much damage, it gave the tribe a whole lot of problems regarding to their living conditions. The Europeans did a lot of thing that the igbo people thought were not possible. Such as when they set camp in the Evil forest which was known for a forest that had a lot of bad things happen within it. The igbo people banished twins into that forest, and for the Europeans to set camp in there it was a big impact. But at the same time the igbo people didn’t mind alsong as the Europeans did not bother them. “When one came to think of it, the Evil forest was a fit home for such undesirable people” (154). Now my topic regarding the book was mainly focusing on the civilization of the igbo people. And had a lot of pros and cons in it. During the time that the Europeans were settling in the igbo peoples religion and culture changed a lot since they arrived. The Europeans brought in christianity, and wanted the igbo people to believe in it. There was a specific person that was communicating with the igbo people by a translator and it was Mr.Brown “There are no other gods, said Mr. Brown” (179). The Europeans also tried to built a church and school, for the purpose of civilizing the igbos known as “savages”. “Mr. Brown.. Sent Okonkwo’s son, Nwoye, who was now called Isaac, to the new training college for teachers in Umufu” (182). That's when Okonkwo started to realize the threats of these European people. Okonkwo got mad at Mr. Brown and told him to leave them alone. A lot of families were torn apart. And family played a big part in the igbo culture. Okonkwo realized that they were a threat and wanted to take some action, since he was known as the strong man in the tribe. He was able to convince a few people to burn down the church with him. After the Europeans found out that it was him they got mad and took him to court as long as to jail. Once Okonkwo was imprisoned the rest of the igbo people started to be fearful. And then the Europeans had nothing to stand in their way. Now to close this off, the damage that the Europeans did was really mentally and physically horrible. Although the Europeans helped the igbo people, they ended up causing a lot of damage. They took in some people in as slaves. And that was truly the end of that culture. They tore the whole culture apart. Close to the end of the book when Okonkwo killed himself the igbo people realized what the Europeans did. But it was too late. Okonkwo’s death was a definite representation of the tribe. It is believed that his death was a symbol of how the whole culture was being tore apart from the igbo people by there Europeans. The igbo people took that into notice and finally realized the damage that was done.