english 120 worksheets, Assignments of English Literature

Download english 120 worksheets and more Assignments English Literature in PDF only on Docsity! This passage describes how Okonkwo had already started to make plans for his triumphant return to Umuofia when he discovered how drastically things had changed. For example, the white men had created a prison and founded a government court of law in Umuofia where those who broke their laws and tried them would get punished. same, how they separated communities and families ‘Our own men and our sons have joined the ranks of the stranger’. Achebe uses right choice of words when explaining Okonkwo’s emotions when she says, ‘Why have they lost the power to fight?’ this tells us that before Okonkwo left Umuofia, he knew his people weren't the kind to easily give up and had trained them to be strong soldiers and fight for what is theirs, so for them to just accept the colonizers' laws is a little shocking to Okonkwo. He begins to wonder how Umuofia changed in 7 years and how the white people were able to colonize the village so easily. He also wonders how his own son had become a Christian and how those changes could have happened. Throughout this passage, imagery is used to show how the Umuofia people painted the white men as good, quiet, and peaceful men who had come to spread religion and Christianity to the people there. However, the white men were actually colonizers who gradually tried to rule Umuofia and change the Igbo tradition by persuading the people that their ways were wrong without understanding the culture, which is what they ultimately did, and who began punishing people who disobeyed their rules. Because of ignorance, a lot of harm had already been done by the time Okonkwo tried to reform things, and the white men had won the hearts of the locals. The Umuofia men, in Okonkwo's opinion, should have opposed the intrusions of the white man and used their combat skills to remove the missionaries from their land, but they were unable to do so. The locals' approval of the missionaries is therefore seen by Okonkwo as a betrayal of the clan's culture and of their forefathers Achebe paints a picture or teaches us of a colonial power that enslaves the Igbo people without asking the missionaries to study their language or make an effort to comprehend their customs and practices. The preachers use persons with similar skin colour and linguistic traits to the local natives people whom appear to be companions with the villager by hiring other African natives, known as the ‘kotmas’ to be their representatives in the daily execution of their rule.