Things Fall Apart Essay

Words: 1008
Pages: 5

Things fall apart, a novel about cultural differences that impacted the way Ibo tribe lived their lives in an extraordinarily large ways. this book covers how you can manipulate the way a society lives by merging it with a new one. The book focuses on a man of many titles named Okonkwo who has lived his entire life following the customs of the Ibo people. However all of this changed when the white men moved in. Similar to the book, I will focus on how okonkwo was impacted by the westerners arrival. Even though okonkwo was effected in many different ways, the biggest shifts would include the introduction of Christianity, the English language, and the new governmental rules of the white men. In Okonkwo's life their religion …show more content…
However, the missionaries do not speak their language. In fact they speak English which causes them to have to use a translator. The translator then proves that he does not speak the Ibo people's language well when he says “my buttocks” (Achebe 144). This is significant because he meant to say myself. Another time language proved to be an obstacle was when the book says “and the crowd laughed”(Achebe 144). They all laughed because the Ibo people made a joke out of how poor the translator knew of their language. This was the Ibo tribes first encounter with a separate language. In their culture proverbs were a heavily used strategy in speaking, but when the English men came they had not used proverbs. Because it was such a big deal, this most likely confused okonkwo and made him believe that the white men were uneducated. Many people rely on their language for communication among their peers, so the introduction of a new language is a big problem for them. This change was a problem especially for okonkwo as he was very loyal to his home tribe and would do nothing to change that, but if he let them stay there would be a good chance that he would have to learn their language thus shifting his culture in a way he did not