Essay Comparing The Poisonwood Bible And Things Fall Apart

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A Cycle Ending In Silence Change, a necessity to survive: a necessity to thrive. In today’s modern, bustling world, one must keep up with the times--more importantly the technology. This cycle of adaptation to technological change is the necessary foundation for society to continue, let alone advance. Every century, it seems cultures die, only to be replaced anew. In modern American society a rift is growing between the pre and post technological revolution, as an increasing cycle of reliance upon modern technology alienates older generations in the workplace. Both Barbara Kingsolver and Chinua Achebe rely on such cyclical foundations for their novels The Poisonwood Bible and Things Fall Apart respectively, with the rise of the missionary movement and the fall of native African culture in both novels. Although change and the …show more content…
However, the Price’s refused to accept such a proposal, despite the fact they were starving; instead they weaved around the proposal by pronouncing that Rachel was already engaged to Axelroot, a man who was closer to their own culture. As a result, both sides of the coin, the Prices and the tribe, revert to their respective cultures: alienating the opposing culture. Meanwhile, in Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo mirrors Tata Ndu’s dependence upon native culture in that “Okonkwo kept the wooden symbols of his personal god and of his ancestral spirits. He worshipped them with sacrifices of kola nut, food and palm-wine, and offered prayers to them on behalf of himself, his three wives and eight children” (Achebe 14). Okonkwo is deeply invested in his native culture, worshiping the Gods of his fathers and becoming a core symbol of the tribes values in light of Christian influence. Specifically, Okonkwo becomes a key adversary to the Westerns in the novel as they saw fit to hold him and five other men for ransom when, “The six men ate nothing throughout that day and the next. They were not even given