Things Fall Apart: Chapter 20

Upon his return to Umuofia, Okonkwo has a great number of things he wishes to get done. One of these plans is to rebuild his compound, even larger. Another is to marry two more women. However, whenever he returns, his heart is quickly saddened to see how much the village has changed. Not only had the white men effected his uncle's village, but Umuofia had been greatly changed as well. The book goes on to describe a great deal about how African culture had been changed by the arrival of white settlers/missionaries. White people had brought many things with them, both tangible and not. Some of these things were: religion, rules of government, and judicial systems. An example used in the book was when a man from the tribe had been hung for killing someone after a dispute. Although we may see this as resonable for the time period, it was very odd for Okonkwo because he had never been exposed to anything like it before. It seems to me that his life is steadily heading downhill at a rapid rate.