Cultural Collision In Things Fall Apart

Nwoye serves as an example of a cultural collision having a beneficial effect, since becoming a Christian drastically improved Nwoye’s mental state and protected his physical health. Throughout the novel, Okonkwo regularly torments his son in order to fulfill his necessity for Nwoye to be absurdly masculine. Also dealing with his internal conflict between personal morality and gruesome cultural traditions, Nwoye was in desperate need of emotional resolutions. The arrival of Christianity in Umuofia provided Nwoye with an unfamiliar and benevolent spiritual figure, as well as a community with ethics similar to his own. In Things Fall Apart, author Chinua Achebe uses Nwoye’s character development to convey that a cultural collision may be able to positively alter one’s life. Needless murder and warranted unjust customs are the aspects of Ibo culture that Nwoye does not agree with. When Nwoye comes in contact with a heart wrenching …show more content…
After witnessing an invigoration wrestling match with impressive young men, Okonkwo criticizes his son: “Nwoye is old enough to impregnate a woman. At his age I was already fending for myself. No, my friend, he is not too young. A chick that will grow into a cock can be spotted the very day it hatches. I have done my best to make Nwoye grow into a man, but there is too much of his mother in him.”(Achebe 69). Since Nwoye’s father is constantly disappointed in him, having a pleasant relationship with Okonkwo was a challenge. The Christians were more accepting of Nwoye, so adopting their culture was the most appropriate course of action from his perspective. In, one of many, instances of Okonkwo beating his son, Nwoye decides to depart from his family and join the Christians, “But was happy to leave his father.”(Achebe 145). Breaking free from his abusive father to become a Christian, allowed Nwoye to possess a fulfilling