Social Changes in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe Essay

Social Changes in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe In the book Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, we are able to read about the social changes the white missionaries had on an African tribe. Mr. Achebe describes the way of life before the missionaries arrived and then records some of the changes, which occurred due to the changed belief system introduced by these missionaries. Soon after the missionaries began to teach the tribal people about the Christian faith, their tribal customs began to be questioned. This caused a sense of unrest in the village. The missionaries were trying to bring with them new ways of life, and mostly better ways of life. Mr.Achebe tries to show us that the missionaries showed people who were hurt by†¦show more content†¦. For example, there was a girl named Nneka who had given birth to several sets of twins. She left them in the forest as she had been taught to do. Mr. Achebe writes, ?Nneka had had four previous pregnancies and child-births. But each time she had borne twins they had been immediately thrown away. Her husband and his family were already becoming highly critical of such a woman and were not unduly perturbed when they found out she had fled to join the Christians. It was a good riddance (pg.151). This shows us how Mr. Achebe understood what was happening and wasn?t surprised when the women fled to the Chri stians. We can also see his knowledge of this belief transformation happening in his village when he writes, ?and were not unduly perturbed when they found out she had fled to join the Christians. This tells us that he didnt really care about the people who left the tribe. He understood why they left but as he said, ?it was a good riddance. From our point of view we can understand why the people who were being hurt by the tribes belief system fled from the tribe in search of a better life. They really had no choice if they didn?t want to live in fear and superstition. There are many examples of people getting hurt in the Ibo tribe, like when Ikemefuna, the young boy, was sacrificed after a women from the Ibo tribe was murdered. Mr. Achebe records the incident, ?As the man who had cleared his throat drewShow MoreRelatedImperialism In The 19Th Century Resulted In European Countries1726 Words   |  7 Pagescountries using social Darwinism to justify controlling the social and cultural lives of natives in African countries.When Chinua Achebe published Things fall apart in 1958, a novel criticizing the European aspects of imperialism, his aspiration was to teach readers that â€Å"their past-with all its imperfections-was not one long night of savagery from which the first Europeans acting on God’s behalf delivered them†(Chinua Achebe on the Role of the African Writer, 1964). 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