Things Fall Apart
When two different worlds come together, the most probable thing that would happen would be a total disaster; chaos everywhere, deaths of innocent people. There is a perfect example in the novel Things Fall Apart by the author, Chinua Achebe, who was an African with personal experience. In this novel he portraits the Europeans as the early missionaries that went to Africa to evangelized Christianity, in the other hand the natives disagree with the different beliefs the Europeans had.
The first few days of missions where successful, since most of the natives went with the white men, since it was a new thing to the natives, different beliefs, different education, everything was different. So the natives started to like, most of the natives went with the white man, since he was the newest attraction in the village. 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 135-136). This statement from the novel explains to us very clearly how the villages have been separated thanks to this white man. Some people are really angry with this man and with his mission. Clearly we can see that these two different worlds are not compatible with each other. The Europeans were successful this time because the natives did not know what they were getting into.
The natives started to hate the missionaries, because they were changing their community. People were changing their beliefs. So the natives started a conspiracy against the missionaries, in other words they wanted to start war to the strangers. Mr. Smith stood his ground. But he could not save his church. When the egwugwu went away the red-earth church which Mr. Brown had built was a pile of earth and ashes. And for a moment the spirit of the clan was pacified (146). This plan was planned by the natives, of how they could destroy this phenomenon, only by destroying their home, the church. So the natives were satisfied by their accomplishment. They would do everything to defend their home, even burn the church.
Most of the natives were not satisfied; they said it was not enough. That it was not enough by destroying their church, on what the missionaries believe in. Everyone in the community decided to kill each and every one of the Europeans. They wanted to make sure they paid for what they have done, by separating their community and the only way was with death. But violence was not the answer for this problem, with deaths only more deaths will come. Its against our custom. It is an abomination for a man to take his own life. It is against the Earth, and a man who commits it will not be buried by the clansmen. His body is evil, and only strangers may touch it(157). The leader of a clan realized all of this was wrong, that it was wrong taking the lives of the ones who were only preaching their religion. That is why this leader, Okonkwo, took his life away, he committed suicide. He felt this was the only answer to end this war between these two worlds. It was a huge sacrifice he did for the rest of his community and for his enemies, the missioners.
He committed suicide so the rest of his village would understand that what they were doing was wrong, that killing was wrong.
Taking the life of yourself for the ones you love and for the ones you hate, must have been a big thing to do, it takes a lot of heart and courage. Clearly, we can see how Okonkwo took his life away to stop the war between two different worlds. It is very admirable to see, and a great example, that sometimes we have to do things we do no like to do, but we still have to do like it or not. The one, who does not live for the others, does not know how to live.
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