Things Fall Apart Christian Religion

The book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is about pre-colonial life in Nigeria and the arrival of European culture. This book talks about how the village of Umuofia reacts to the culture shock of the Christian missionaries coming in and taking over. Nwoye is one of the main characters in this book. He had a negative response at first because of the way Okonkwo, his father, responded to them. After Nwoye was able to discover them for himself he decided that he wanted to pursue their beliefs. One of the many things that drew Nwoye to converting to the Christian religion was the beautiful music that they played. While he was going school to learn to read and write he heard the hymns playing and he was instantly attracted to sounds. Nwoye was often sneaking around the church to be able to hear the music that pleased him. Nwoye expresses the way he feels in chapter 16 on page 147, “the words of the hymn were like drops of frozen rain melting on the dry palate of the
panting earth.” This shows that Nwoye feels safe in the radius of the Christian music. Another big reason that Nwoye converted was the Christian religion itself.
The Christian beliefs were very different from the Igbo beliefs and Nwoye was attracted to that. The Igbo gods convinced the people to believe that ogbanjes and twins were a source of evil. The Christians believed that ogbanjes and twins are just children and should be treated as children. In the Christian religion their God declared a better life after death and did not kill newborn twins. The beliefs and laws of Christians were a lot more lenient and less cruel which he appreciated. Christian religion was what finally broke the fragile relationship between Nwoye and his father Okonkwo. Nwoye’s attention to the new religion caused him to leave his family and fully convert to Christianity. Later on, when he was asked about his father, Nwoye replied, “He is not my father.” (Chapter 16, page 144). It was Christian faith that finally helped Nwoye to find the courage to cut the ties with his
father. Nwoye’s persona changes a few times throughout the book. He even changed his name to Isaac when he fully converted. When he is introduced in the beginning he is womanly and weak then he becomes more manly in the middle and in the end he has more confidence to show who he really is and what he wants. Nwoye was very lazy like his grandfather Unoka, this changed when Ikemefuna a boy from another village came to live with Okonkwo and his family. Ikemefuna was a role model for Nwoye and he helped him to become more manly. Okonkwo liked this change in Nwoye a lot and there relationship was repairing until the oracle told the people that Ikemefuna was not supposed to live and he needs to be killed. Okonkwo was told to stay out of the killing but he did not and he was the one to kill Ikemefuna. This event sent Nwoye to become distant from his father. He also began to show his individuality again. With the way Nwoye and Okonkwo's relationship was going it was not a surprise that Nwoye would convert to the new religion and leave his family behind. This new religion brought by Christian missionaries helped Nwoye discover who he really is. As a result of that Nwoye left his family and also his tribe when he converted to the new Christian religion.