Cultural Collision In Things Fall Apart

Words: 688
Pages: 3

One man's struggle to freedom.

Culture collisions can affect people in many different ways. In “things Fall Apart” by “Chinua Achebe” the book talks about one man and his family struggle to deal with the British integrating the culture of Africa. Nwoye’s sense of identity was challenged with the introduction of Western ideas into Ibo culture. Nwoye started out in the novel as the outcast son of the main character Okonkwo one of the village leaders. But the cultural collision of the British colonists and Ibo people affected Nwoye to the point of joining or accepting the British culture. The reason for Nwoye's change in his sense of identity included leaving his family and joining the British culture and even becoming a missionary. In the end the
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Ikemefuna was to adoptive son of Okonkwo and Nwoye had become very fond of Ikemefuna’s so much that they had become inseparable. Nwoye had learned a great deal of knowledge Ikemefuna and he was starting to grow into the man that his father wanted him to be. Until one day he was sent from his father obi and had learned that Ikemefuna was going to go home. “That night when his father returned home Nwoye knew that Ikemefuna had been killed, something seemed to give way inside him, like the snapping of a tightened bow.” (44) At this point Nwoye did not cry for his brother, he simply hung limp like a palm branch. When this snapping occurred, it was as if Nwoye’s love for his father was broken and for every moment since this point Nwoye has been different.
The third reason that Nwoye’s sense of identity was changed is his name and his beliefs. Isaac and he converts to Christianity. He has given up the beliefs of the Ibo people to accept the beliefs of the white man. He is excited to leave his father and finally be free from his hold of anger. He is now a missionary and is traveling with the white man spreading the beliefs of