No Long At Ease Analysis

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Extract 5 Chapter 6-How does Achebe convey loss of cultural identity as a result of colonialism here. No Longer at ease is a novel written in the 1960s by Chinua Achebe originating in Nigeria and it tells a story of an intelligent, idealistic man called Obi Okonkwo. Throughout the novel, we discover many of his struggles with his split cultural heritage and beliefs as a result of colonialism in Nigeria. Because of this, he faces many challenges in his life making him segregated from the rest of the society. Achebe conveys the loss of cultural identity as a result of colonialism by the authority of his parents, the register of the folk tales, the structure and theme of food. Firstly, Obi’s parents are catechist which are people who teach…show more content…
At the start of the extract, we are firstly introduced to Obi’s parents and we learn the sacrifices that Hannah has to makes to her new faith. The sentence “Hannah had stopped telling her children folk-stories” shows how Christianity has damaged the Ibo culture as Achebe has used a direct simple sentence as emphasis and to send a firm message. Furthermore, we learn Obi has many characteristics like her mother as they are both split and ambivalent about their religion and this is significant because Achebe is trying to express the damaged legacy being passed down to the new generation (the structure of the novel starts with Hannah’s struggles and then onto Obi’s struggles). This is evident in the line “she told him to be patient until his father went to the evening prayer” , this demonstrates their love for the Ibo culture but they are restricted from it due to colonialism and this significant factor leads to further turmoil in Obi’s life. As well as telling folks tales, she teaches her children not to accept food in neighbors’ houses hence the children learn from the adults as proven in the line “We don’t eat heathen food”. Instead parents being a good influence teaching to the children, they are making them worse almost like they (and colonialism) are indoctrinating the children before they have a real sense
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