Things Fall Apart By Chinua Achebe - 1710 Words

â€Å"The white man is very clever. 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 146). This quote, spoken by Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe s novel Things Fall Apart, is the most significant quote in the novel itself. This story was set in the 1890s. During this time, missionaries and colonial government intruded the Igbo society. In a traditional African village, lived a well-recognized man, Okonkwo. Okonkwo was ambitious, powerful, strong, short tempered, and depended on physical strength and African morals. He also believed†¦show more content†¦Okonkwo returns to a villager he can no longer call his anymore. He finds that the missionaries had dictated what his friends and others should believe in, agree or disagree with and he is intending to retract hi s morals and beliefs. In the process, Okonkwo is destroyed. His unwillingness to change from the strong, masculine man to a understanding and gentle man, led Okonkwo setting himself apart from the community and him fighting alone against the missionaries. In Chinua Achebe s novel Things Fall Apart, the author develops the theme of survival of the fittest does not always result in a civil community, in order to emphasize that the beliefs of cultural and religious traditions are important to developing a civilized African community. One example of the survival of the fittest not resulting in a civil community is during the week of peace. This sacred week is a time for calmness. Okonkwo, who values respect and strength largely, disregards this sacred week by beating his wife because she had not eaten dinner with the rest of his wives and children. Achebe represents this betrayal of tradition by stating, â€Å"His first two wives ran out in great alarm pleading with him that it was the sacred week. But Okonkwo was not the man to stop beating somebody half-way through, not even for fear of a goddess. Okonkwo’s neighbors heard his wife crying and sent their voices over the compound walls to ask what was the matter. Some of them came over to see for