Part III
1. Achebe chooses to bring in the European colonial presence only in the last third of the novel to give the reader an understanding of how the African culture was before and during the invasion of the Europeans to show the shift in lifestyles and how it affected these people. With such a complex and developed culture, two-thirds of the book is needed to explain it in order to get in full the drastic changes forced upon them by the Europeans.
2. The changes which occurred in Umoufia over the seven years while Okonkwo was in exile are that the White man's church has spread among the people, and the government of the Europeans was established. The government inculed a judge and courthouse along with officers. Another change which is most noticed by Okonkwo is the spirit of the clan and how it went from once being a war-like, proud, and independent to being "woman-like," allowing the white man to tread on their land and customs.
3. The function the kotma serve in the new society is to uphold the White man's law, and to administer punishment to those who break it. The white-man's law and system of justice is based on European customs and culture which includes a European-based moral stance by a Christian's point-of-view. This includes a judge to examine the crime and decide a punishment, which will be executed. On the other hand, the traditional Umuofian justice system is decided by the village leaders on religous-based and customary standards of law-breaking. Umuofians, for instance, will mutilate corpses, murder twin babies, and make sacrifices to their gods all on religous standards, while the Chrisian ways and white laws go against all of this and punish people accordingly. The same goes vise-versa; the white men will go against customs and religous beliefs of the Africans, while if the African did it, he would be punished by his clansmen.
4. "It is already too late," according to Obierika, to drive the white men from the land because they have already established so much, influenced so many Umuofians, and gained the loyalty and trust of so many that there would be an outburst not only by the white man but many of their fellow clansmen as well. According to Obierika, the white man has been "very clever" by coming peacefully and quietly with his religion, amusing the Umuofians with their foolishness allowing him to stay, and now has won their very own men. Obierika might be considered a transitional figure between the old and new Igbo societies because he believes in his ancestor's ways and follows their customs, yet he allows the white man to come with his new church and change thier ways without a fight.
5. The missionaires Mr. Brown and Mr. Smith are very different. Mr. Brown came peacefully and influenced people without force. He respected the ways of the people of whose land he settled in and got along with them with minor conflict. Mr. Smith on the other hand is forceful and demanding. He expects the upmost Christians in his church and has no care for the ways of the natives. We learn from Akunna and Mr. Brown's religion that the native believes revolve around one god with the help of many others of whom which he created, in contrast to the Christian beliefs of one god who doesn't need the help of any others. Enoch sets off "the great conflict between church and clan" by unmasking one of the spirits during a ritual, and murdering him. The sources of misunderstanding which seem to make the conflicts between the Europeans and the Africans inevitable lie in their beliefs; each culture believes the other to be ignorant and foolish for their ways.
6. Many in Umuofia feel differently from Okonkwo about the white man's "new dispension" because he built a trading store and much money was flowing into Umuofia. Some even felt good about the religion. "Religion and education" go "hand in hand" in strengthening the "white man's medicine" because with the churches built came schools which educated people that were warned of a soon white rule over them where people could read and write. As people went, they began to notice that the white man's medicine was fast-working.
7. The District Commissioner tricks the six leaders of Umuofia into jail by inviting them to a meeting in his courthouse and unvealing a surprise attack where twelve men jump the six leaders and hand cuff them. Okonkwo's reaction is surprised and filled with anger. Okonkwo kills the messenger, I believe, because he is overwhelmed with what these white men have done to his clan, and as the messenger comes to break up the meeting of the village, it angers Okonkwo too far. I believe Okonkwo committed suicide because he foresaw the devastation of his village and couldn't stand to see it happen, and with the punishment he knows is coming to him, he wouldn't be able to do anything to stop it. Okonkwo is isolated in the end because he offended the customs of his religion and no one can handle his corpse. I do consider Okonkwo a tragic hero who didn't get to fulfill his potential in the rescuing of his clan.
8. I believe the District Commissioner would write the paragraph of Okonkwo in his book by explaining it as the fall of troubled soul, trapped by the savage nation and unrescuable. The District Commissioner would definitely see his death as what needed to be done and definitely not something noble. Achebe has made Okonkwo's story the subject of a whole novel because he understands the suffering that these natives of Africa went through, and saw Okonkwo's story as tragic and worthy of being turned into a novel.
9. Things fell apart in the story as reflecting to the native culture. The white Europeans came and forced their ways on these people of Africa, and slowly with more acception and power of the white people, the culture fell apart. The major themes and messages of things fall apart, I believe are the tragedy brought by the crusaders such as the Europeans into changing the ways of others. Another theme is to respect your elders and ancestors, and to have faith in what they followed and taught their new generations.
10. The effects the cross-cultural combination of Western literary forms and Igbo/African creative expression produce is an understanding for the modern Western civilization of the suffering and tragedy of what occurred in Africa. With a Western writing style for a native story, Western minds can better understand the concept of the novel.