Today, most Americans do not socialize with their neighbors, or depend on them for their entertainment and friendship, and so, modern culture differs greatly from this clan-like village culture.
Religion was important to the Ibo, and their belief in spirits often appears in the novel. Their religious beliefs centered on signs and spirits, as this passage clearly indicates. "The Oracle said to him, 'Your dead father wants you to sacrifice a goat to him'" (Achebe 15). While religion was important to them, it was certainly not the same form of religion as modern Christianity and other beliefs. It is based in superstition and oral tradition, and on a set of spirits who rule over all areas of life. The Ibo also practice sacrifice, which is certainly not a part of modern American society. These beliefs seem pagan-like to modern cultures, and probably would not be accepted by most modern Americans.
Finally, the Ibo have no written language, so they rely on storytelling or oral tradition to keep their history and culture alive. This occurs throughout the book, but is especially apparent in Chapter 11, when Ekwefi, tells the story of "The Tortoise and the Birds" to her daughter, Ezinma. This shows how the Ibo live off and respect the land and the natural world around them, and combine it with their spiritual beliefs to form the basis of their religion and culture. Critics Booker and Gickandi write, "This episode combines with other references to storytelling in the text to indicate the importance of oral narrative as an element of daily Igbo life" (Booker and Gikandi 249). Storytelling is no longer a tradition in modern American life, any more than remaining in touch with the natural world...
Today, Americans do not enjoy the natural world nearly as much as they once did, or other cultures once did. It does not play a part of their daily lives, but it did for the Ibo.
In conclusion, a way of life disappeared when the Ibo tribes "fell apart" during colonization of Africa by the English. The novel shows just how different modern American culture is from village life in Africa. Modern Americans enjoy technology, transportation, clean, safe homes, and a myriad of "necessities" that make life more pleasurable and simple. The two cultures really could not be more dissimilar. Yet, families were important to the Ibo, and so was their traditional way of life. This novel also shows how much these people lost when their way of life vanished. Today, their lives might seem backward and awkward, but they had no choice in changing their culture forever, and that is tragic.
References
Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. Oxford: Heinemann Publishers, 1958, 1986.
Booker, M. Keith, and Simon Gikandi, eds. The Chinua Achebe Encyclopedia. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2003.
Brians, Paul. "Things Fall Apart Study Guide." Washington State University. 13 Dec. 2005. 21 June 2006.
A https://www.wsu.edu/~brians/anglophone/achebe.html
Ogbaa, Kalu. Things Fall Apart: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999.
Osei-Nyame, Kwadwo. "Chinua Achebe Writing Culture: Representations of Gender and Tradition in Things Fall Apart." Research in African Literatures a.2 (1999): 148-164.
