The Role Of Assimilation In Things Fall Apart

In the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe there is a clan named Umuofia that has to face many challenges caused by outside people. The main character Okonkwo is a very popular and well known citizen of the clan who the book is based around. One day Christians come to Umuofia and try to convert the clan from a polytheistic religion to Christianity. This book shows that when there is a new influence that affects you or someone near you they will almost always assimilate. Assimilation is very hard to avoid and will almost always affect you even if it isn’t in very major way. Things Fall Apart is mainly about assimilation but with assimilation also talks about identity as well. Assimilation and identity go hand in hand. Assimilation changes
When the Christians come to Umuofia and want them to convert to Christianity some people change religions and assimilate to Christianity. That is the only main instance in the book but it is a very important one. The villiage people have to make a choice to stay with their polytheistic religion or convert to Christianity. Assimilation also is the main point of a Raisin in the Sun. At one point of the story Beneatha is accused of assimilating and being an assimilationist. She never actually assimilated because she has lived in one spot her entire life unlike her accuser who actually did assimilate. The person who accused her is from Nigeria and grew up there so when he learned English, changed his clothes, and adopted some of the culture here he actually assimilated not Beneatha. In the Lord of the Flies there is a very distinct example of assimilation. In the beginning there is one group that then gets split into two groups. At first Ralph has all of the support and the followers but Jack slowly assimilates the boys into his group and draws them away from Ralph. The example from Lord of the Flies supports my statement when there is a new influence that affects you or someone near you they will almost always assimilate. When Jack started a tribe and became a new influence over the boys, the boys of the island were getting assimilated into Jack’s tribe. Even when Beneatha was getting accused of assimilating she changed her clothes,