Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart essays

Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart essays In Chinua Achebe's novel "Things Fall Apart" there are many important issues to discuss. One important question to ask is, "Were the European colonists/missionaries wrong in the fact that they invaded a society that did not want to be changed?" The Europeans condemned the Ibo people as "barbarians" and "savages," which were justifiable by the European religious and social definitions of the words. The similar mentalities are present in the three quotes by F. Hegel, R. Burton, and S. Baker. Ultimately, the Europeans began a moral crusade to "save" the barbarians from what they saw as their own ultimate "demise." In Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe presents to us the destruction of a traditional native culture, the weakening of Ibo spirituality, as well as the death of the tribe's livelihood. He reveals that the ever apparent cause can be found in a seemingly good intended mission, acting as a gateway for the intrusion of a foreign government. Throughout the failures and defeats of this society (in response to European colonialism) Achebe shows us the true vision of these African civilizations, and the African Mind, Spirit, and Presence is celebrated. The ideological system of colonization has been a violent destructive force on the world, as we know it. Slavery, murder, violence, rape, and torture of non-European peoples was the cruel reality of colonization. European nations, with the motives of sheer greed, brought Africans into slavery. This hostile take over was rationalized through the racist ideology that native peoples were inferior savages: "He would appear rather a degeneracy from the civilized man than a savage rising to the first step were it not for his total incapacity for improvement." (R. Burton) In the eyes of the Europeans, their idea of "improvement" was a society that was a match to theirs, one that they could actually live in. This crusade was as unjustified at the turn of the century as it would ...