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"Culture Shock and the Death of Our Ancestors" |
It is a common belief that children are the future. What happens when the children forget the past and adopt a new lifestyle? Many cultures have died because children move away from what their family has taught them. Many cultures in Africa, the Caribbean, and various regions around the world have died out. The “superior” European culture forces its way into these places and replaces the native culture of that region by “reeducating” the younger generation. When a “superior” culture moves in and leads the younger generation away from its tribal culture, life falls apart. Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart, depict the culture of a Nigerian village before, during, and after the Europeans begin to colonize the country. The main characters are Okonkwo and his family. This family represents the people of Nigeria. Okonkwo symbolizes that average Nigerian male, as well as the struggle to fight against the invasion of the European culture. Okonkwo’s son, Nwoye, symbolizes the younger generation that winds up discarding his own culture and accepting the European culture. Okonkwo’s family is broken up after the Europeans come into their village and life becomes a lot harder for everyone in the village. People are turned against each other in the same way that Okonkwo and Nwoye are divided. Nwoye is constantly berated by his father for not being “man enough.” “ Okonkwo’s first son, Nwoye, was then twelve years old but was causing his father great anxiety for his incipient laziness. At any rate, that was how it looked to his father and he sought to correct him by constant nagging and beating” (Achebe 10). This formed a separation between father and son. Nwoye was drawn to another youngster, Ikemefuna, who gave him confidence and lifted his spirit. However, Ikemefuna was from another village and was sentenced to death for the murder of a woman by a villager from Ikemefuna’s village. This tradition prevented wars from occurring between the villages, but Nwoye saw it for what is was – the murder of an innocent young man. The Europeans brought Christianity to Umofia, Okonkwo’s village. Nwoye was attracted to the new ideas. He was awed that the Christians managed to survive in the Evil Forest and that they did not agree with the murder of innocent people. Everything that Nwoye had questioned the Christians questioned and condemned as well. “It was not the mad logic of the Trinity that captivated him… The hymn about brothers who sat in darkness and in fear seemed to answer a vague and persistent question that haunted his young soul- the questions of the twins crying in the bush and the question of Ikemefuna who was killed. He felt a relief within as the hymn poured into his parched soul” (Achebe 104). Okonkwo renounced his own son, as the villagers disowned those who accepted the European’s lifestyle and religion. Life fell apart as the Europeans stepped foot into Umofia. People joined the new religion and turned their back on their ancestral religion, adapted the new language, and families like Okonkwo’s were divided. The new European government replaced the long standing form of government the villagers had. Even those who did not accept the European culture, they did not fight against it. Okonkwo urged his fellow villages to fight and wage war on the Europeans. It was useless. They refused to fight, even after six leaders of the clan were arrested, Enoch unmasked an egwugwu (the clan’s spirit elder), and their families were broken apart. The Europeans’ attitude was, “we are better, your ways are primitive and savage, you must join us or be doomed to ignorance.” They were not ashamed of espousing theses view and brainwashing the new members of the church to believe this. Many people surrendered to this way of thought. Those who had previously questioned the tribe’s traditions were easily susceptible to this tactic. Okonkwo was struggling to retain his own culture but failed. Okonkwo’s father said it best when he told Okonkwo, “You have a manly and a proud heart. A proud heart can survive a general failure because such a failure does not prick its pride. It is more difficult and more bitter when a man fails alone” (Achebe 18). Okonkwo failed alone and committed suicide. His loss was too great to bear. His tribe no longer existed. They died the moment they accepted the European culture and discarded their own. |
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