Conflicts can be aggravated or alleviated depending upon how a situation is approached. There are different ways to approach issues. We can see this every day in family relationships. For example, the teenager who thinks that his parents don’t parent reasonably can do either one of two things. The teenager can be belligerent, and make the parents angry, causing them to react in a negative manor. Another way to approach these family issues is respectfully and intellectually. Rather than rebelling against the parents the teenager is more likely to establish a workable compromise, with a positive reaction and have room to build trust on. It may still be hard to produce change, but the success is still better.
This was much like case with the missionaries in Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart. In this story, the character of Mr. Brown helps bridge the gap between Igbo society and European culture and the Christian religion. Mr. Brown uses peaceful means to get his results. In contrast the character of Reverend Smith, who destructs the peaceful and non violent ways of Mr. Brown and expects immediate results. This turns the working culture of Nigeria’s indigenous people upside down, causing class structure fall-out at the bottom
. . .
He kept strictly to Christian doctrine and didn’t allow any of the converts to keep any of their old traditions. After Brown's departure, Smith openly condemned his predecessor's method of compromise and accommodation. Doing this he found a way to earn the respect of the ranking clan members and bring a freedom of choice in the religion. Although this system was functional and successful it was eventually challenged. 184) He was a very opinionated person who started making changes as soon as he arrived on the scene. 184) there wasn’t any grey area in the middle. Brown’s school not only taught them how to speak and read in another tongue, but “from the very beginning religion and education went hand in hand” (Achebe, pg. Brown's restraining hand started practicing their faith at full swing and became aggressively antagonistic towards the Igbo. Brown gave respect to the society by building on top of its already established cultural traditions. He suspended a woman from the church for practicing Christianity without fully giving up her traditional religion. Once he was even “presented with a carved elephant tusk, which was a sign of great dignity and rank” (Achebe, pg. The rebellious actions we take for reform are usually put down.
Approximate Word count =
955
Approximate Pages =
4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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