Things Fall Apart Essay
The imperialistic movement was a government policy of colonizing new lands and bringing natives under the control of the government. In the nineteenth century expanding of the land owned by a country was brought around; through military, religion, and foreign exploration. The reason for the conquest of new lands was that it brought in trade of new goods, which increased the revenue of the government and many privately owned companies; examples of such goods were sugar, coffee, slaves, and etc. One such method to bring land under the control of the foreign country was to send missionaries to convert the indigenous people to the religion of the invading country and thus try and assimilate the people into …show more content…
He believes he is the head of the household were women do not any authority, though European culture has begun shifting more favorably for women in the later years of the nineteenth century and women do have more freedom in Europe than Okonkwo allows his wives. To Okonkwo his wives were merely homemakers that did chores that kept the house going and appeased him. He also viewed his wives as only a means to breed children and bring forth males that will benefit his household and the community at large. This sentiment of women breeding for male heirs is a very common theme with European culture and he shares this view with them. Okonkwo also shares the value of being industrious it is common value in European culture that hard-working men were valued above the rest and usually had better lives. Even with Imperialism and the influence of colonization on the native people, a lot of values that were held in Europe were already held in the native culture. This helps with assimilating the native people into the colonizing countries culture. It is also a paradox that Okonkwo shared many values and ideals as the Europeans, since both Okonkwo and Europeans viewed themselves so differently but were so alike in many ways. The book illustrates this point when Mr. Brown talks to one of the village elders who states that their religions are not so different but both of them cannot agree that they are the