Things Fall Apart

"Does the white man understand our custom about land?"
"How can he when he does not even speak our tongue?"

That quote stood out from me in the context of the class because it talks about what a cultural barrier there is between people of different cultures that even speak different languages.  I think that the difference between cultures is much more than just a language barrier, but in Things Fall Apart the language barrier is especially important because the Umuofians have an oral culture whereas the whites are literate, shown in the end as the commissioner plans to include Okonkwo's story in his book on how the Nigerian tribes were "pacified."  This particular scene also shows the difference in cultures-the white people did what seems like a completely ridiculous thing now by taking over these tribes and trying to erase their culture, but in their culture they had been taught that their way was best and all others must be pacified.  In the end, it's really not that different from how the Umuofia tribespeople thought, Okonkwo was willing to do anything to save his tribe and when it became clear that he could not do anything about it, he killed himself thus separating him from them forever.

I think that it is taught in everyone's culture that their culture is the best and that they should try to convert everyone else to it.  I think if you ask any American, most of them would be reluctant to ever move to a foreign country and give up everything they know and have been raised on.  The same can be said for most other cultures, oftentimes even when people were flooding to the United States it wasn't because they didn't love their culture, but because life got too difficult in their homeland for them to stay.  Once large groups of Italians and Irish and Chinese and other groups of people came to the United States, they lived in communities together and continued to practice the customs taught to them in their home country.  They then passed on these traditions to their children.  Culture is something nobody is ready to give up.  While I believe Things Fall Apart was meant to show the wrongdoings of the white people that came into Nigeria, I think it also speaks of how strongly people are attached to their culture.