Nwoye’s transition to Christianity is quite understandable. He has been pushed away by his tribe since the abandonment of the twin babies and the killing of Ikemefuna. Since these events he has not been fully committed to the tribe. “Something had given away inside him.”(Pg 62). The arrival of the missionaries just gave Nwoye the outlet to convert from his native religion. Since he did not really believe in their religion, he felt like an outcast in Umofia. This allows him to fit in extremely well at the Christian church as most of the members are outcasts in society. Nywoye’s conversion really hurts Okonkwo. But does Nywoye’s conversion hurt Okonkwo because his son cannot be a great clansman or because it hurts his own reputation.
The rulers of Mbanta and Okonkwo both have the same views of the Christian church and they understand the problems it causes. Despite this, the tribe allows to church to exist and does not resort to violence. Okonkwo objects to this as he feels violence is the answer. This shows that Okonkwo is willing to go against the tribe’s morals to preserve them. This again goes back to Okonkwo's fear of weakness. He does not want to look weak by letting the “enemy” convert his people so he would rather resort to violence. He believes that Umofia would have used violence because the “men were bold and warlike” (Pg 162).
How many Africans converted to Christianity.
I like that you questioned Okonkwo's motives for being so cold towards Nwoye. From what I have read, most of his actions are for his own benefit, so I would not be surprised if that was the case. Okonkwo was so distraught over the fact that the people he was trying to impress his whole life turned out to be cowards. Maybe this is why he was willing to go against tribal beliefs; no one else followed them.
ReplyDeleteI agree when you pointed out that okonkwo really only cared that nywoye converted because it hurt his reputation, which was really the only thing he cared about through out the whole story.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Nwoye's transition to Christianity is understandable. Being shunned from one's community their whole life is enough to turn someone cold. Nwoye was left extremely susceptible to outside influence.
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