Chinua Achebe's novel, Things Fall Apart, is set in Nigeria; The novel examines the clash between traditional African culture and the Western ideals of the Igbo tribe, through the protagonist, Okonkwo. Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's novel, Purple Hibiscus, is the story of a teenager, Kambili, which focuses on family relationships and cultural ethics. Moroccan author Laila Lalami's novel, Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, examines the lives of four Moroccans who flee Morocco for Spain in search of greener pastures. Things Fall Apart, Purple Hibiscus, and Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, describe that children's defiance of their parents' beliefs is attributed to the generation gap in families, between parent and child, and is influenced by imperialism and society, such as the children achieve their socio-cultural identity and this causes confusion between the parent and child relationship. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Imperialists “submerged and dismantled indigenous institutions, and in their place, foreign rule was established. Traditional institutions before then were considered not only political authorities but also custodians of cultures” (Arowolo 7). The clash between Western and African ideals of African citizens created by Western colonialism in Africa has resulted in a generation gap within families. In Things Fall Apart, Western imperialism affects Okonkwo's family, particularly his relationship with his eldest son, Nwoye. Nwoye grew up in Umuofia village through Igbo culture. Igbo culture consists of its own religion which is intricate and has a number of gods. When colonialists came to colonize the Igbo tribe, they brought with them a new culture. “We have brought peaceful administration to you and your people so that you may be happy. If someone mistreats you, we will come to your rescue. But we will not allow you to mistreat others. We have a court where we judge cases and administer justice as is done in my country under a great queen…this must not happen under the rule of our queen, the most powerful ruler in the world” (Achebe 137). The new culture is brought in place of the already existing Igbo culture. The colonialist culture consisted of Christianity because they came to the village as missionaries and forced Christianity on the villagers and were able to intrigue most of the villagers to join their culture by challenging the Igbo cultural beliefs. At this time when colonialists are forcing villagers to embrace Christianity, Nwoye is in the midst of conquering his own socio-cultural identity. Children are usually vulnerable at this stage of achieving their socio-cultural identity as Amara Uzoigwe states that, “in attempting to realize themselves, young people are influenced and influenced by the social environment and social structure in which they live” (4 ). Nwoye dislikes his father's cultural beliefs because he differs from some of their beliefs like throwing away twins which happened in his childhood when one day he heard a pair of twins crying in the evil forest and it disturbed him because he couldn't to understand the cultural belief. He abandons his family's beliefs and joins Western ideals because the church allows twins, and they answered many questions about the religion he had been hooked on since childhood. On the other hand, Okonkwo disapproves of the white man's faith and maintains traditional cultural beliefs. Theredifference in beliefs between Okonkwo and Nwoye causes disunity in their relationship. Okonkwo is rallied by Nwoye's actions and exiles Nwoye, which is ironic because he is also in exile from Umuofia village. One of his friends "Obierika went to Mbanta to see him", "found that Okonkwo did not want to talk about Nwoye, it was only from Nwoyemother that he had heard fragments of the story" (Achebe, 144). Despite their blood bond, the their relationship weakened and both did not want to be associated with each other. After Nwoye rebels against his father's beliefs and is exiled, he prepares to go to missionary school in Umuru. The introduction of a new culture by the colonists causes a generation gap between Okonkwo and Nwoye, which results in two at different ends of the spectrum of beliefs Kambili's father, Eugene, is also depicted. he is a Catholic who challenged his father's beliefs because he believes in traditional cultural beliefs. Imperialism affects the relationship between Eugene and his father causing a generation gap. Eugene is educated by the missionaries and copies from the missionaries how to do things "the way". right, like the white people did, not what our people do now!" (Adichie, 68). The missionaries draw him towards Western ideals and distance him from his father's beliefs. The opposition of ideals between Eugene and his father causes Eugene to become rebellious against his father and strongly disowns him or denies his children a relationship with their grandfather due to the difference in beliefs. Culture is “conceived as the collectivity of human activities and general principles that tend to guide the ideas of a group of people with shared traditions, which are passed down, instilled in the generation and reinvigorated by the members of the group” (Aworolo 4). , religion and customs, brings disunity in a family. Purple Hibiscus by Adichie is set during postcolonial Nigeria and the reader is introduced to Kambili, a fifteen-year-old whose family and country are falling apart. the relationship between Eugene and Kambili's brother Jaja is deteriorating due to the cultural gap. “Things began to fall apart at home when my brother Jaja didn't go to communion and dad threw his heavy missal across the room and broke the figurines on the ?tag?re” (Adichie 3). Jaja decides to challenge his father, who is a strict and religious man, on the religious aspects. His father expects his son to follow his religious beliefs, but these are conflicted by a cultural divide. Today's society does not respect religion as it did during Eugene's adolescence. Jaja is influenced by the new culture in society and this leads him to challenge his father because the new culture was not parallel to his father's beliefs. Society's influence on the relationships between parents and children is represented in Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits through Noura's thoughts. relationship with his parents. Noura and her father, Larbi, have an extraordinary parent-child relationship because they reach the same beliefs and do not reach a cultural gap. Their relationship worsens when Noura becomes friends with Faten and she is exposed to a different culture within his society. Faten is a religious woman, who covers her hair with a veil and, as her relationship with Noura grows, “she becomes a regular visitor to Larbi's house” (Lalami, 25). Because Noura has spent a lot of time with Faten, she learns about Faten's religious culture. Noura's parents have a liberal culture that differs from Faten's and her father discourages her from Faten when he notices that Noura is moving away from her culture. After spending a lot of time with Faten, Noura shocks her parents with the news that she has "decided tostart wearing the hijab" (Lalami 32). The company of Faten, who has different cultural beliefs than hers, made her decide to wear the hijab because she was exposed to that type of culture and as Timyan argues, "the routine A child's daily life takes place in a social environment populated by members of the community. It is through recurring interaction with these people that the child learns appropriate social behavior, discovers the need and has the opportunity to practice certain behaviors” (7). Lardi does not approve of the hijab because he considers it a “peasant” dress and as “the equipment of the new breed of Muslim Brotherhood” (Lalami, 34). Noura's parents had adopted Western ideals along with Noura, but the relationship changes each time Faten is introduced into Noura's life and she adopts the old-school religious beliefs that her parents had abandoned. The clash between the two ideals led Noura to become a rebel against her father's beliefs. The culture imposed by society influences children as they form their socio-cultural identity. When children acquire beliefs that are different from those of their parents, it creates friction in their relationship. Analyzing the effect of parents and society on children's rebellion, Uzoigwe argues that children's "dependency on the adult and the larger society for self-realization, however, has laid bare the need for both the adult and society live by example and according to the standard norms and values of society” (3). Before colonization infested Africa, society and people played a role in the relationship between parents and children portrays the relationship Okonkwo had with his father, Unoka, before he died During that time in Umuofia village, the villagers followed the cultural beliefs related to the social class he was considered rich and strong based on the titles he held in the village, to the number of yams and wives and his boldness. “In his time he was lazy and improvident and was quite incapable of thinking about tomorrow” (Achebe 4). or securities and had a lot of debt. Unoka's character and cultural beliefs influenced Okonkwo in how he formed his socio-cultural identity because those were the things that surrounded him at the time. “Okonkwo did not have the start in life that many young people usually had” (Achebe 16). Okonkwo led to different beliefs like his father because his father's beliefs since his father left him nothing to own he needed to do better so as to create a good reputation for his family. “His fame rested on personal successes. As a young man of eighteen he had honored his village by casting the cat Amalinze…Okonkwo was as slippery as a fish in water” (Achebe 1). Okonkwo became a hard-working and ambitious man through wrestling, in fear of ending up like his father. Society and its citizens have an effect on the formation of children's socio-cultural identity. African families describe the negative effects that religion has brought into families and has created a clash between parents and children over morals that has led to a dysfunctional family. The clash was provoked by Western colonization into which it introduced new cultural beliefs. Now people had two cultural beliefs and could and had to decide which side to lean on, the African one or the Western one. The outcome of the decision affected the relationship between parents and children whenever they adopted opposing beliefs, which is reflected in the three novels. The generation gap also caused by the different ideals between parent and child causes conflicts in their relationship and leads children to. 2016.
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