At the current rate of globalization in the twenty first century, many countries, cities, and even villages are being culturally influenced by Western ideals. Many are willing to accept this change as the way of the future, however, others are choosing to preserve their individual culture or at least approach these new ideals with skepticism. Wole Soyinka’s Lion & The Jewel is a story that exquisitely portrays the conflicting desire to follow tradition or concede to cultural change from a more powerful entity, having faith that it will somehow improve your life. Cell One, a short story written by the Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, shows us how Western society does not disseminate an exclusively positive influence, and that there
…show more content…
The reluctance to accept Western culture at face value in Sidi’s people is wise, whereas Nnamabia and his peers are foolish and hasty to adopt different values in order to socially conform, rather than actually contemplate whether those values could improve your life. The same haste and incautiousness is apparent in Lakunle. Both readily accept, albeit very different, Western ideals. Nnamabia buys into the destructive culture of thugs by stealing, and Lakunle blindly accepts any and all Western ideas just because he has so much faith in the conventional western lifestyle. Although he is correct that many forms of Western lifestyle have a higher standard of living when compared to remote Nigerian villages, he takes the concept of Westernism like the word of God. Both Lakunle and Nnamabia’s hasty acceptance of Western ideals comes from a place of ignorance-- ignorance being defined in this context as the inability to form your own original opinion about something. For example, Lakunle’s ill-fitting western clothing is an indication that his perceived ideals of Westernism are not perfect. He chooses to disregard the clothing’s flaws, just as he continues to blindly follow Westernism and disregard any opposing opinion. To Lakunle, the West represents Utopia. To Nnamabia, the West represents all that is “cool” and all that it takes to fit in, but both of them fail to entertain the thought that maybe the West doesn’t do everything
The reluctance to accept Western culture at face value in Sidi’s people is wise, whereas Nnamabia and his peers are foolish and hasty to adopt different values in order to socially conform, rather than actually contemplate whether those values could improve your life. The same haste and incautiousness is apparent in Lakunle. Both readily accept, albeit very different, Western ideals. Nnamabia buys into the destructive culture of thugs by stealing, and Lakunle blindly accepts any and all Western ideas just because he has so much faith in the conventional western lifestyle. Although he is correct that many forms of Western lifestyle have a higher standard of living when compared to remote Nigerian villages, he takes the concept of Westernism like the word of God. Both Lakunle and Nnamabia’s hasty acceptance of Western ideals comes from a place of ignorance-- ignorance being defined in this context as the inability to form your own original opinion about something. For example, Lakunle’s ill-fitting western clothing is an indication that his perceived ideals of Westernism are not perfect. He chooses to disregard the clothing’s flaws, just as he continues to blindly follow Westernism and disregard any opposing opinion. To Lakunle, the West represents Utopia. To Nnamabia, the West represents all that is “cool” and all that it takes to fit in, but both of them fail to entertain the thought that maybe the West doesn’t do everything