Things Fall Apart

            When reading “Things Fall Apart,” what I struggled with most was the names of the characters and keeping them straight with whom they were connected with and everything they dealt with. Another situation I struggled with was all of the violence, especially the husbands towards their wives because the abuse of women has always been a never. Throughout this book I constantly compared how our cultures differed and the things I could not really compare to. This happens when Okonkwo compound is destroyed to cleanse the village of his sin which I found to be pretty intense. I guess it is hard to understand another person’s culture without actually being able to see it and be taught it. Understand the culture within this book was rather challenging and sometimes I think made it hard to focus.

            Once the white men came into the story and began to build a church and convert people to Christianity, this book felt like so many others where religion and a different way of living are being forced upon cultures that do not want to conform, yet end up changing and having it change them in the end.  The fact that the villagers did not fight for their customs and their way of life is quite hard to believe. I understand that fighting and war is not always a great solution, to protect a way of life and peoples culture it would be worth it to stand up and fight. Once Reverend James Smith became the head of the Christian Church and started being so strict, taking a stand and rebelling immediately at that point probably would have been the best thing to do. The fact that Okonkwo is the one to jump forward and take the head of one of the white men while no one else helps speaks volumes to how people are willing to fight for their culture even though he was not backed up in his efforts.

            I find it rather interesting that Okonkwo is the one to take a stand because of being exiled previously. I believe the fact that he is willing to take a stand and in the end give his life to attempt to save his culture and people is rather heartfelt and warming to know that he still fought for what he has known forever while everyone else stood by and watched their lives be changed forever. This story brought up the whole fight or flight thinking because either you stand up for what you believe or you watch everything change right in front of your eyes.