Christans and Native People

When the Christians first come the native people are a bit confused by the new religion but they are willing to listen. At first they are so confused and do not know how they could have the father, son and the holy sprit but only have one god, when they are telling them that there is only one god and none of theirs exist. After listening to the white people some people finds that it answers their questions. For example Nwoye, he finds that it answers his questions about why Ikemefuna was killed and why they have to kill twins when they are born. To him it never made sense. More and more people started joining the Christians and moving onto where they lived and had become part of their festivities. Finally it got to the point where the native people would not let the Christians or anyone who had converted to their belief back onto their ground. Then Enoch goes and unmasks one of the spirits of the native people and that just sends the people into anger and confusion. They don’t know what to do and all they can thing about is getting back at them. So the spirits go and burn down Enoch’s house and then they turn to the church where Mr. Smith was. They don’t want to go as low as they did by destroying what they believe in so they do not harm him, but they do burn down the church.
When Mr. Brown was the minister the people were nicer to the native people. He understood that they would not completely understand the religion but it was ok to come and be part of their church. He did not force it though. During that time the native people were treated nicer and there was not as much hatred. But when he left and Mr. Smith came everyone had to understand and had to believe in what he believed in. But the messengers were not nice to the people. The kotma beat the people in the prison and forced them to do manual labor. The British do not think that their way of life is civilized and it doesn’t mean anything to them. They do not care if they destroy their culture they just want more followers.

Mother is Supreme

When Uchendu starts talking about the Ibo proverb that the “Mother is Supreme” Okonkwo is scolded for not understanding what he is saying. He ignores it for example by beating his children. If his child does anything wrong he will beat them and then send them off to their mothers so that their mothers can care about them. But even though he beats his children he still cares about them. For example when Ezinma was carried off by Chielo he left home and went to the cave four times because he was so worried about her. He even offered to stay there and let Ekwefi go home and sleep. Okonkwo tries to ignore it so that he can be a man but inside he really does care about his children. But when he tries to ignore it and when he is trying to be to manly it sometimes overpowers him. It forces him to beat his wives and do things that he will regret later. Mothers always look forward to the future and are always optimistic. But Okonkwo, when he is exiled from Umofia he is depressed and doesn’t even want to plant crops so that he can earn money for his family.

Okonkwo

I think that Okonwkwo is a good guy, but he can be really mean sometimes. He can be a really hard worker for example in chapter 3 he goes to a leader of the community and he brings him gifts. After giving him the gifts and then saying how much he respects him he asks him if he can loan him 400 yam seeds. The man trusts him so much that he gives him 800. But the year he received the yam seeds it was dry all year long. No matter what he seeds and sprouts still died. So he tried again but this time there was rainstorm after rainstorm and they all got washed away. So there I admired him for how hard he worked and felt sorry for him because he had to pay off all of his dad’s loans. And now the seeds that he owed the man. But, I also think that he can over react sometimes. For example in chapter four when he came home to find that this 3rd wife wasn’t there to make him dinner. Even though she left her children at home to go do her hair I do not think that he should have beaten her like that. She does a lot for him and is there whenever he wants her so I think it is ok that she left for about an hour to do something for herself.