Ginkgo’s eldest son, Annoy, was supposed to follow in Ginkgo’s toasters and become this big, strong image just like his father instead he turned to the new faith Christianity. Annoy knew he couldn’t tell his father that he supported Christianity because he knew his father wouldn’t allow it, as the text states, “Although Annoy had been attracted to the new faith from the first day he kept it secret… For fear of his father” (Achebe 149). When Annoy leaves after having an altercation with his father, Awoken feels disappointed because he had high expectations for Annoy.
He later tells himself that “Living fire begets cold impotent ash” (Achebe 1 53), meaning that Awoken as the living fire begets or makes impotent or useless ash referring to Annoy. Awoken was affected by Christianity because Christianity took Ginkgo’s eldest son, and after Envoys stopped seeing Awoken as a father he told Beriberi, “l am one of them”, “l don’t know he is not my father’ (Achebe 144). After being exiled for seven years, Awoken returned to his homeland Mafia.
After being gone for that amount of time, Awoken realized that he had lost his position and he was going to work to gain it back. Christianity affected Ginkgo’s rise to power whether it was people not wanting to follow IM anymore or just him knowing that he couldn’t overcome the new faith. Awoken tried to convince his fellow villagers to destroy the missionaries, but they never listened to him. It was holding him back from rising forward as shown in the novel, “They had not agreed to kill the missionaries or drive away they Christians” (Achebe 192).
During Ginkgo’s last efforts to get his villagers to rise with him, he killed a messenger. Thinking it would spark everyone else to start the war he was waiting for, but to his dismay no one followed and he simply left, “He knew Mafia would not go to war… E wiped his machete in the sand and went away’ (Achebe 205). After not rising to power the way he expected, and realized no one was going to follow him, Awoken saw no other option but to kill himself as described, “They came to the tree where his lifeless body was dangling and they stopped dead” (Achebe 207).
During the time when the missionaries arrived and Chi risibility was introduced many changes started happening. Awoken wasn’t ready and disliked those changes. When a missionary first came to their village to speak of Christianity and try to convert some people Awoken just ended up hinging the man was mad, “At the end of it Awoken was fully convinced the man was mad” (Achebe 147). When the missionaries were bringing people, to the new faith, one of the newest people to change was Ginkgo’s eldest son, Annoy.
Once the dispute with Annoy and Awoken was settled, Awoken though of why he was cursed with a son like him. For a second, he came to the conclusion that his wife played him wrong and that wasn’t actually his son as the text states, “His wife played him false, he would teach her! ” (Achebe 153). Awoken tried many times to rekindle the flames of his fellow brothers f Mafia that were known throughout the nine villages for being very fierce but when the Christians came he dealt with the fact that they just did not want to fight.
It aggravated him, and he mourned for them, “He mourned for the warlike men of Mafia, who so unaccountably had become soft like women” (Achebe 183). Awoken, one of the fiercest men of Mafia, had to not only fight against Christianity, but the changes and problems it brought to his village. When Ginkgo’s son gets converted into the new faith and leaves Awoken, he holds a bigger grudge against the Christians for taking his eldest son away room him.
