Things Fall Apart
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
Due to Reverend Smith's extreme stance, the overzealous converts who had been kept under control under Mr. He shows us that we cannot judge another cultures religion by the standards of another culture. European missionaries came to Umuofia, bring with them a new religion and a new way of life. The Igbo society was very advanced in terms of law, discipline, religion, and culture. Brown was "very firm in restraining his flock from the clan" (Achebe, pg. With this earned admiration he was able to open not only a town store, but a hospital and a school as well. This book also goes on and shows that even though other cultures are different and not easy to understand, and are not inferior. Smith saw the world as a "battlefield in which the children of light were locked in mortal conflict with the sons of darkness". 178) Unlike Reverend Smith, Brown kept the zealous followers under control.
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Acceptance Essays
