He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart" (Achebe 152). Confronted with change, individual members of Ibo society react differently. Those who stand to gain from change -- the outcasts, the oppressed -- welcome it. Those who have risen to positions of authority by following the old way -- Okonkwo, for example -- resist change. The battle between the old and the new is highlighted by the arrival of Christian missionaries and colonial authority. Okonkwo and Obierika recognize that many of their clansmen adopt the new ways. Obierika realizes resistance is futile whereas Okonkwo chops the head off a colonial messenger, something the old tribe would have found heroic, but something the new tribe does not endorse.
The European influence threatens to extinguish the need...
These traditional methods, once crucial for survival, are now, to varying degrees, dispensable. Colonization finally drives Okonkwo, the protagonist, to take his own life because the oppression is too great for his divided tribe to overcome. Okonkwo cannot accept the idea of living under the rule of foreign men who do not speak his language or know his customs. He chooses death rather than having to abandon the moral percepts he has lived by and compromise his beliefs and the traditions of his people.
Works cited:
1. Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. Anchor, 1994.
2. Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. Dover Publications, 1990.
3. Plato. "Apology." The Collected Dialogues of Plato: Including the Letters. Princeton University Press, 2005.
4. Plato. "Crito." The Collected Dialogues of Plato: Including the Letters. Princeton University…
