Cultures Collide

As a whole, humans are very arrogant creatures.  We believe that our way is always the best way.  However, when we view life this way, it causes conflicts among those around us.  As read in "The Challenge of Cultural Relativism," different cultures have different morals, so no one has the right to judge those people with a different culture.  The Eskimos, for example, marry, but the men marry more than one wife.  They also share their wives with guests, and the dominant males can have any other men's wife as he pleases.  The women can leave their husband for a new partner, as well.  In the United States' culture, this is viewed as crazy.  We believe that you should marry one person at a time, and sharing is considered cheating.  Eskimos also believe that killing infants is okay too.  One woman gave birth to twenty children but killed ten at birth.  This is viewed as absurd in our culture as well, especially since we have so many couples struggling just to have one child.  However, it is not our place to tell the Eskimos that they are wrong because their culture is different from ours.  If we did try to tell them that they are wrong and then try to change them, there would probably be some conflicts between us and the Eskimos too.  That is why we should respect differences among each other.  Cultural differences is also shown in Things Fall Apart.  When the missionaries come to Okonkwo's village, they work at changing the ways of the African people.  They build a school, push Christianity on the people, and start "righting" some of the African people's ways.  For example, Okonkwo's people believed that having twins was bad, so they would leave then babies out in the forest to die.  The missionaries disagreed with this and started saving the babies and brought in the mothers if they wanted to join them too.  This was considered evil to Okonkwo's village.  As time went on, the missionaries pushed their ways onto the people more and more making many of them angry.  Because the missionaries were pushing the "right" ways, conflict arose.  However, if the missionaries had just shared their faith with the people of the village instead of pushing their culture onto them, they may have brought more people to Christ and gotten along better with the Africans.  So as it is seen, if people would have respect for the different cultures around them instead of forcing cultures onto others, we would have more peace... and we would probably make some new friends in the process. :)

The Truth of Man

In today's society, men are expected to act macho and unbreakable.  They should never cry, and they should never express too much emotion.  If they do, they are considered womanly or gay.  This is shown in Things Fall Apart as well.  Okonkwo thinks men should be war-like, hard-working, and controlling.  When the missionaries start to settle in and he returns to his people letting the missionaries do what they please, he declares the men have become cowardly and more like women.  After the missionaries and their followers have abused six of the village's men, he realizes that his village is not going to step up like men and fight, so he hangs himself (which I believe to be just as cowardly).  Okonkwo is so ashamed of how his village is acting that he resorts to killing himself.  I believe that our society today is somewhat similar.  Guys are ashamed if they cry because they have been taught that men don't cry, only women cry.  So when they do, they hide it from others.  If others hear about it or see it, the guys tease him and the girls think it is weird.  I do not think this is how it should be.  People have different fears, and we all need to express it.  Okonkwo was wrong in judging his village for how they acted.  They were scared.  And as a society, we are wrong when we judge guys for crying or showing emotion.  I have a friend who has recently been struggling with all the things that are taking place in his life.  Whether it is the change in his friends or what may happen in the future, he is struggling with how to handle it.  Sometimes he just cries, and he feels ashamed to tell me or anyone about it because men are not supposed to do that [cry].  My friend told me that he has been girly lately because he has been crying, and he is happy one moment and then mad or sad the next.  Guys should not feel that way, but our society is doing that to them.  It is just adding to everything else they have to worry about.  That is not fair to them.  Therefore, I believe we should take a stand against our society's views of how a man should act.  Okonkwo took a stand, probably the wrong stand though.  I believe we should take the right stand and be there for the men our lives to show that we support them and are always there for them, even when they just need to cry.  The truth is men are people just like women are, and as people, we all have emotions.  We should not have to hide that.