Postcolonialism and Slinkys

             In Things Fall Apart, Achebe not only makes the colonizer, the white missionaries, and colonized, the people of Umuofia, relationship clear but also attempts to reveal the true nature of this relationship and the negative effects it brings with it. After extensively describing the culture and traditions of Umuofia in a hundred and twenty five pages, Achebe then describes the quick manner in which the colonizer destroys the people’s faith in their own customs. He describes the white missionaries disregard on the significance of the people’s traditional practices and then summarizes postcolonial thinking in the last paragraph of the novel, stating that these white missionaries will name their novel “The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger” and that they will devote “perhaps not a whole chapter but a reasonable paragraph” on Okonkwo’s life. By naming the novel this, the District Commissioner is not accurately depicting the people of Umuofia and the relationship between them and the white missionaries. Instead, the white missionaries are reducing Okonkwo to topics on murder and suicide rather than the respectable man he once was according to their customs. Furthermore, people will believe what the white missionaries write about because they have not been to the village of Umuofia and therefore cannot say what is true and what is not true in the depiction of the village. Another negative effect is that Umuofia’s traditional religion, language, and culture will disappear and be replaced by this supposedly superior way of living.

            Similar ideas that Achebe describes can be seen when applying the postcolonial lens to analyze Frankenstein. Through this lens, the creature can be seen as the colonized and the society that surrounds him as the colonizer. As soon as the creature comes alive he is immediately attacked by societal values. This makes the creature seem like he is inferior just because the society around him says that he isn’t supposed to look the way he does. He is ostracized from society because society makes him feel that he is not allowed to be a part of their society, which is similar to the Igbo people. The white missionaries continuously tell them that they are worshipping false Gods and that they are only pieces of wood, which is undermining the Igbo people’s culture and eventually making it nonexistent. Moreover, it is in postcolonial nature to describe the “inferior” people and customs in such a way that makes the colonizers feel like they are doing the right thing and this is seen in Frankenstein also when Frankenstein is describing the creature’s grin as evil when it really could be an expression of despair when Frankenstein believes he is doing the correct thing by destroying the creature’s companion. Additionally, the reader can only believe that the Creature is evil when Frankenstein is describing him because he incessantly describes the creature as hideous and evil. This is similar to the white missionaries continuously describing the Africans as savages and people who have no culture or language in Heart of Darkness. The negative effect that comes from this colonizer/colonized relationship is that Frankenstein’s family is killed by the creature and eventually the creature also dies, which is similar to the death of the Igbo people’s culture.

            Finally, Achebe’s argument can also be applied to the movie Avatar. In Avatar, the colonizer are the humans and the colonized are the Na’vi. The humans want to destroy the Na’vi people’s homeland for their own selfish reasons. They do not understand the culture or the significance behind the tree that they want to mine when they attempt to have the people relocate. Jake Sully tries to understand their customs and gain the Na’vi people’s trust but ultimately his goal is to also get resources from their land. He is like Mr. Brown in Things Fall Apart. Mr. Brown tries to convert the Igbo people, but while trying to do this, he learns about the Igbo culture.  Similarly, while Sully is attempting to relocate the people, he is learning more and more about their culture. The humans almost destroy the customs, the culture and the significance behind their homeland near the end of the movie, which illustrates Achebe’s argument that in the process of trying to convert the colonized that they are destroying their traditions.

            In all three works, and especially in Things Fall Apart, the events led systematically from one thing to another which led to another thing until eventually things fell apart. This systematic way of events is like an origami slinky. One piece is connected to the next which is connected to the next, and this makes it eventually “fall” down when placed on stairs.