Things Fall Apart Who Is Essay

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Smith hates the Igbo faith so much that he equates it to the Baal and the followers of Baal in the Biblical Old Testament. He has strict policy over conversion to Christianity such that any elder to decides to get converted to Christian faith must immediately abandon the traditional ways and follow Christianity only. His cruelty and strictness to the abandoning of all Igbo traditional ways is seen when he suspends a woman from the church for having fulfilled the traditional ways of handling a dead Ogbanje child who had to have some rituals conducted in order to avoid another Ogbanje from being born.

From the contributions and character traits of the two preachers, it is seen that Mr. Brown makes a better preacher and influences more people into Christianity without much violence than Reverend Smith does, hence making Mr. Brown a more successful preacher here.

Who makes a better village Elder, Okonkwo or Obierika

Okonkwo is out to cut a niche for himself despite the background and this he does by self-determination in the society and even beating Amalinze the cat in wrestling duel. He is later trusted with the security of a young boy, Ikemefuna, who was given to their village as a ransom for Ikemefuna's father having killed someone from Okonkwo's village. He is seen to have made a name for himself in the village. However, most of his acts are driven by fear of looking like his father and being considered a failure. This makes him to overdo things and in most instances suffering the consequences alone. He deals with people with too much sternness and firmness for fear of looking emotional and gentle like his father. This is seen in the instance where he is expelled from the village and even more significantly at the close of the novel Okonkwo kills a messenger and realizing that he is all on his own, he commits suicide.

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On the other hand, Obierika seemed to be more forewarned and mild in his approach to issues, even those of the spiritual directives. For instance when the spirits decided that the boy Ikemefuna was to be killed so as to atone for the father's killing Umuofia villager, Obierika warns Okonkwo against participating in the ritual killing of the boy since the boy called him father and he had stayed with the boy long enough. Even after Okonkwo defied him and went ahead to kill the boy himself, bierika comes back to comfort him about the death of the boy showing the tolerant and emotional side of Obierika as an elder.

Obierika is seen to be more reasonable and realizes that times are fast changing and there is no need to meet the changes with violence and get back at the colonizers who had invaded Umuofia and other surrounding villages. Obierika is seen to have belief in the Igbo ways of life but questions the backward practices, a total contrast to Okonkwo who fully believes in the Igbo ways without any questioning. These two characters are directly the opposite of each other and their lives are different throughout the novel, however, their friendship doesn't die at any given point. Obierika assists in the selling of Okonkwo's yams when he is in prison and indeed even when Okonkwo commits suicide at last, Obierika exclaims that Okonkwo is the strongest man that the village has ever had. Generally, these above mentioned traits and qualities made Obierika a more successful village elder that is left after the demise of Okonkwo to continue leading the village through the changes.

Reference

Achebe Chinua,(1958). Things Fall Apart. New York: First Anchor Books,….....

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