Theme Essay

Name Professor Course Date of Submission Theme Essay Culture defines identity of a person and influences a person`s view of the world as well as interaction with other cultures. The common theme in these two stories is the cultures of African societies and European societies. Chinua Achebe`s "Things Fall Apart" and Joseph Conrad`s "Heart of Darkness" are each written under different circumstances and places. While Chinua Achebe`s story is about European colonization and impact of missionaries on Igbo culture, Joseph Conrad`s is about the negativity and darkness of colonization on Europeans (Curtler 35). However, the two stories have a common ground, in which they both focus on European and African cultures and how they interact with each other. In this essay, I will analyze the theme of culture in both stories by focusing on the elements of culture such as identity, beliefs, practices and interaction with other cultures. Culture influences a person`s view of the world such as what people believe in, for example, how people perceive evil. For instance, in Igbo culture, certain things and places are associated with evil, for example, the forest in which they threw twins, thought of as a curse. Evil was a serious thing in Igbo culture, and the people who committed acts considered evil got cleansed or dealt with so that they would not taint other people (Lindfors 23). However, this contrasts with the European cultural view about evil; for example, missionaries built a church in the forest where Ibo people considered evil. In the Heart of Darkness, European culture is quite distinct from the Congo culture. The river and its surrounding is like home to the natives, but, Marlow view the atmosphere of the River together with the natives as evil (Rhoads 70). Therefore, culture defines what is considered evil differently by different societies. Chinua Achebe clarifies this Uchedu by stating, "what is good among one people is an abomination with others" (Achebe 129). Culture defines the identity, place and role of women in society, and in Igbo culture, women must be obedient and submissive to their husbands. They are also perceived as weak and gentle, but some of the women had high status, treated as a deity and respected because they were priestess. A woman`s place was to take care of kids and other household chores like raising easy crops and preparing meals (Baldwin 34). Men, for example, Okonkwo headed households and could do anything to women such as beating them without fighting back because they existed to fulfill the needs of men (Booker 15). In the European society, culture shapes the perception about women differently, for instance, they did not rank high in the society. They played silent roles in the society as evident in the Heart of Darkness where they barely ge...