Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Why has Okonkwo & the clan fallen apart?, "The arrival of the…
Why has Okonkwo & the clan fallen apart?
Clan
Differences within the clan:
Community vs. Individual
Those who did not see the need to fight failed to realize what was happening while it was happening: bystanders
"It is already too late" p.165
Thus they must adapt:
"If we should try to drive out the white men in Umuofia we should find it easy... But what of our own people who are following their way and have been given power?" p.165
"Our own men and our sons have joined the ranks of the stranger" p.165
"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 in the things that held us together and we have fallen apart." p.166
Those (like Okonkwo) who wish to fight
"What is it that has happened to our people? Why have they lost the power to fight?" p.165
Those who believe that the white men aren't that bad:
"There were many men and women in Umuofia who did not feel as strongly as Okonkwo about the new dispensation." p.168
"The white man had indeed brought a lunatic religion, but he had also built a trading store and for the first time palm-oil and kernel became things of great price, and much money flowed into Umuofia" p.168
Nwoye and other followers who supported the arrival
"The arrival of the missionaries had caused a considerable stir in the village of Mbanta." p.136
white men and culture clash
"They had brought a court where the District Commissioner judged cases in ignorance." p.164
external events
"'Does the white man understand our custom about land?' 'How can he when he does not even speak our tongue?'" p.166
"But there was a young lad who had been captivated. His name was Nwoye... It was not the mad logic of the Trinity that captivated him... It was the poetry of the new religion, something felt in his marrow."
Nwoye did not understand why Ikemefuna was killed, why twins were thrown away, and other traditions of his culture. So, he and many other outcasts turned towards the new religion as an alternative.
"These outcasts, or osu, seeing that the new religion welcomed twins and such abominations, thought that it was possible that they would also be received." p.147