Things Fall Apart Change Essay

Change can be looked on in different ways. It can be seen as undermining to what is already established. However, it can also be seen as progressive or the path of the future. In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe these views are shown. The negative view is seen by characters like Okonkwo, where the establishments being undermined are the huts or the overall way of life. The positive view is seen by characters like Nwoye, where he is drawn by the acceptance of Christianity. Either way change is definite due to the Europeans’ forcefulness and will affect the Ibo’s structure immensely. Achebe develops the Ibo’s depth to prove that change within a culture can be a necessity, while not always a desire. A need for change is conveyed for the Ibo’s
judicial system. In chapter 10, the Ibo judicial system is shown. It is learned that their way of settling issues involves creating a balanced punishment or finding a way to decrease tension. For example, in this chapter the husband has to beg for his wife and must never beat his wife again, but he still gets to have her back. The Europeans, on the other hand, have brought a different judicial system, which focuses more on a one-way punishment. The point where change would be needed is when the Ibo used their judicial system on Enoch’s compound and the church. To the Europeans, this was a savage act, so they forced their own system onto the Ibo. After capturing the six Ibo men that performed those action, the District commissioner points out the British in Africa “‘...have a court of law where we judge cases and administer justice just as it is done in [Britain]...I have brought you here because you joined together to molest others, to burn people’s houses and their place of worship’”(Achebe 194). The District Commissioner's opinions are clear, to him the Ibo are savage and have no depth. Even though the depth of the Ibo was already evident through Achebe’s writing, the British are ignorant to this fact and will not accept their traditions. In order to survive the Europeans reign, the Ibo would have to adhere to their judicial system or be locked up forever. The way the Ibo teach and learn would also have to be changed in order to live during the colonisation period. The Ibo’s education system has a need for change in Things Fall Apart.
In chapter 11, the education system of the Ibo is shown. The adults pass down knowledge through stories. Mothers focus on stories that teach a message, like the story of the tortoise that teaches the message of benevolence. The fathers, as shown by Okonkwo, focus on war and violence in their stories. The English, on the other hand, has the institutional version of education with schools. They try to change the Ibo’s ways by recruiting them into their school system. Since the Europeans are there to stay, learning their language may be the only way. Mr. Brown realizes and begs the Ibo to join their systems, saying “...that the leaders of the land in the future would be men and women who learned to read and write. If Umuofia failed to send their children to the school, strangers would come from other places to rule them” (Achebe 181). Language is key to communication, which is key to nonviolence due to its peaceful approach. Without this ability to communicate, which would be present if the Ibo learned English, the Ibo would most definitely become the inferior to the European. This sjdj would occur because the Ibo would fall behind the advances which would only be happening in
English.