Picture Perfect

I am thoroughly happy to have completed this story and now be able to view it in its entirety. I have to say, this last portion was by far my favorite. It really brought together everything we have been studying and talking about in class in regards to colonization and its effects on the cultures that are imposed with an outsiders view and lifestyle. While reading this novella leading up to this section, I kept wondering when we were ever going to encounter the white man’s aggressions towards this tribe. As unfortunate as the events that occur were to the people of the Umuofia, it was a fantastic portrayal of the destructive effect that may take place when one culture imposes its lifestyle and beliefs on a people group of a different culture. And this is what I believe led Okonkwo to take his life, is the path to complete destruction of the traditions of their culture. He clearly found his identity in maintaining and fulfilling these traditions, so as he watched them slip away from the society of his homeland, he in turn saw and felt the imminent demise of himself. He no longer fit into the new society that was being built up around him in his own home. I have to say, I loved the last paragraph where the District Commissioner portrays the ignorance of the white man in what he has done through the process of colonization. As he reduces Okonkwo’s long and tumultuous life to a paragraph in a book, we are shown a clear picture of the differences of the “other”. That D.C. would never understand the passion of Okonkwo’s life because he is so far removed from his society, and that ignorance, though completely natural, keeps their worlds from ever finding true understanding. Most people hated what that last line did to the big picture, but I saw it as the perfect way to end what was blatantly a book about the irreconcilable differences of two cultures, especially when one culture is there to conquer the other.