Rev. Smith
These heathen savages are going to burn in hell! How dare they burn down God's house! They're so primitive and stubborn. Why can't they see that their ways are wrong? I feel that even though we have won so many converts, there is still such a long way to go. One thing is for sure, these Ibo leaders are impossibly hard to break.
"He condemned openly Mr. Brown's policy of compromise and accommodation. He saw things as black and white. And black was evil" (Achebe p.145) |
|
The impact that environment and society have on an individual are most obvious in Mr. Smith's case, since his motherland is so different from the setting the reader experiences in the book. He grew up in England, whose society was full of rituals that are different from the Igbo tribe. Clothing was different in that men were expected to wear suits and ties, and very little skin was shown among women. From the usage of silverware to proper introductions to leisure activities, everything that Mr. Smith had experienced was different than what he encountered in the Igbo tribe. Mr. Smith comes into the tribe with the mindset that his society is the ultimate, right society and that the Igbo people need to be changed. Their customs, clothing, and society seem primitive and disgusting to Mr. Smith because of his mindset; he can't comprehend that their society is different, he only sees it as wrong.
The epitome of the societal differences comes in the subject of religion. While the Igbo worship many gods and have a complex religious system, Mr. Smith practices Christianity, in which there is one supreme god that allows no other gods. Obviously, this creates conflict because the tribe fears consequences of abandoning their various gods, while Mr. Smith keeps insisting that their other gods are fake idols. He sees their religion not as different, but as evil, which affects his whole way of going about things. He's very strict within his church, and instead of taking time to learn about the Igbo religion he simply denounces it as evil. His society and English environment are so ingrained in him that he cannot even begin to understand the Igbo society, which causes conflict within the story.