Theme Of Change In Things Fall Apart

There are many circumstances in which change occurs; change can either be sought after or forced upon. In Thing Fall Apart, change is forced upon the Ibo people by the white missionaries who inhabit Umuofia. In The Life of Olaudah Equiano and The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, both Equiano and Douglass seek change by pursuing their freedom. In most cases, people tend to accept the changes they seek. However, when change is forced upon people, they may not always have the freedom to choose to accept or reject such changes. In Thing Fall Apart, change is both rejected and accepted by Okonkwo and the osu, respectively. In The Life of Olaudah Equiano, Equiano naturally rejects the involuntary changes he has to endure as a result of
They only have to walk through the church’s doors to gain the acceptance and freedom they desire. Unlike the osu, enslaved Africans like Equiano and Douglass have to fabricate the change they want to see. Equiano has to save enough money to purchase his freedom. Being limited to the restrictions of slavery, Equiano has to create a plan to earn the money he needs. He endeavors to try his “luck and commence merchant” (122). In St. Eustatia he buys a tumbler for half a bit and in Montserrat he sells the tumbler for a full bit. Seeing the profit earned, he buys and sells goods during each voyage. After years of buying and selling, Equiano is able to purchase his freedom from his master, Robert. “Like a voice from heaven” his master tells Equiano to go get his manumission (143). Equiano’s life revolves around movement. He spends most of his life on a ship, traveling from one place to another, but he embraces this movement as it was the means to obtaining his
As enslaved Africans, Equiano and Douglass have multiple masters and are therefore imposed to change. At a young age, Equiano and his sister are kidnapped from their hometown and sold to slave traders. Equiano’s time in slavery is mainly spent on slave ships and British navy vessels, where he is eager to “engage in new adventures, and to see fresh wonders” (89). His amazement however is opposed by the culture shock he experiences from the European treatment of slaves. Equiano describes the air in the lower deck of the slave ship as “unfit for respiration,” the “galling of the chains” as “insupportable”, and the “groans of the dying” as horrid (60). Slave ships are evidently no place to call home. Equiano travels farther and farther from home exchanging masters along the way. Much like the osu, Equiano finds comfort and a sense of belonging in the church. He is “wonderfully surprised to see the laws and rules” of his country “written almost exactly” in the Bible (96). By finding connections to his home in the Bible and adopting Christianity, Equiano holds onto a piece of home. Douglass however, is deprived from everything that “ordinarily bind children to their homes” (360). His home was a place where he witnessed his brethren beaten and oppressed. His home was not his