AP English
3rd Hour

Theme: When pushed to the limit, one can begin to question their morals.

Thesis: When a more powerful influence challenges a way of life, one can begin to question their morals. That isn’t for sure, but I feel it should be changed a bit, because not everyone was pushed to a limit. Also not everyone questioned their morals, some stood their ground. Some of my evidence is based on both of those things.

Evidence #1: Okonkwo’s suicide.
Okonkwo was pushed so far beyond his limits that he felt the need to kill himself. To me this shows that he would rather be dead than submit to colonization. “A man’s place was not always there, waiting for him. As soon as he left, someone else rose and filled it” (Achebe 140). He already disliked what was happening to his clan, but when he returned from exile he knew he was slowly losing everything. He was losing his clan, the chance to lead was against the new religion and years that could’ve gained him new titles (140). The new religion was spreading and life as he knew it was coming to an end, in his eyes. “He mourned for the clan, which he saw breaking up and falling apart […]” (150). Okonkwo said that, “Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart” (145). His fears were coming to a reality because everything he worked so hard to achieve were being taken away from him.

Evidence #2: Enoch unmasking an egwugwu.
Enoch was pushed to go against his old religion because he felt that as a Christian, the clan wouldn’t touch him. “It was Enoch who touched off the great conflict between church and clan in Umuofia […]” (152). Enoch and other Christians wanted a war, but I would think that’s against their morals because you shouldn’t want to submit to violence. Mr. Smith said, “We cannot offer physical resistance to them. Our strength lies in the Lord” (154). This proves that he stood his ground, but that was questioned for a split second when he almost ran away as the egwugwu approached the church. The egwugwu were pushed to the limit because Enoch committed a great