Ibo Tribe example essay topic

308 words
In Things Fall Apart by China Achebe, the final chapter is the last testament that things have truly fallen apart. Chapter 25 finally switches the point of view to that of the District Commissioner and the missionaries, and closes the book with the Commisioner's thoughts about his own novel, The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of Lower Niger. This title provide the contrast of he Ibo's thought of the missionaries crusade, as they interpreted it to be just an invasion of their land and culture. Pacifism is used to indicate that before the missionaries, the tribes were violent savages with heathen values. By saying "One must be firm in cutting out the details", he intends to show a biased opinion of the tribe and their culture. In the beginning of the chapter, The Commissioner was accompanied by several messengers, but later they were referred to as soldiers.

His reference to Obrieka and his clansmen playing "monkey tricks" is an ignorant and derogatory statement to the Ibo tribes. He is still missing consideration for the "primitive" and seemingly un orderly tribe. When the men finally approached Okonkwo's dangling body, they stopped dead, symbolic of the Ibo culture becoming oppressed and overtaken by Christian ways. With Okonkwo's suicide, "The District Commissioner changed instantaneously" because the final barrier that protected the Ibo culture was now fallen.

Okonkwo's tragic fault of opposing laziness and idleness finally caught up to him when he took his own life. Once "One of the greatest men in Umofia... he will now be buried like a dog". Achebe uses more animal imagery to portray the humiliation of the fallen warrior. Just like Okonkwo's hanging, Obrieka choked his words.

By the end of chapter 25, things have finally fallen apart for the Ibo Tribe.