CER on Things Fall Apart

       The vice of colonialism is brought out by the hypocrisy of white settlers in blindly achieving their ends, condemning already established culture despite knowing scarcely anything about it.  Yet it also festers in the native people who blindly follow these settlers, and polarize their homeland as a result.  As the threat that the white people pose to the Igbo people and the realm of Umuofia becomes increasingly grave, Obierika and Okonkwo have a conversation that channels author Chinua Achebe's perspective on colonialism.  They say, "'Does the white man understand our customs about land?'  'How can he when he does not even speak our tongue?  But he says our customs are bad...  How do you think we can fight when our own brothers have turned against us?  The white man... has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one.  He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart'"  (Achebe 176).  Unity is what makes a community strong and well.  It is also necessary in resistance to colonialism.  Therefore, the way in which colonialism takes its toll, by attracting native community members to colonists, fosters disunity.  This diminishes the impact of any resistance and ensures that the settlers will have power.  It is the metaphorical knife with which white colonists, Achebe says, tear already established communities apart.  This passage's tone of gravity and severity, as well as use of metaphor, extend the impact of this idea.  Colonialism preys on those who are susceptible to influence and pits them against their community members, in a rejection of the cultural traditions that keep them together.