Throughout history, there have been many cases of people having difficulty identifying and coping with change and tradition, and this is no different in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. For most of the novel, Okonkwo, his family, and the villagers all experience this struggle. As the missionaries continue to live in the evil forest, they repeatedly gain converts in the villages, as Igbo beliefs are consistently shown to be inaccurate. Okonkwo's son, Nwoye, converts because of confusion in his people's beliefs, and Okonkwo changes drastically as a person because of the arrival and actions of the missionaries. Many themes are evident throughout Things Fall Apart, but one of the most important is the struggle between change and tradition, in the sense that some people change, but others do not; This clearly takes a toll on Okonkwo who uses fear to keep his other children in Igbo culture. He fears that if his family converts, there will be no one left to remember him when he dies. At the end of the story, Okonkwo reaches his breaking point; “They came to the tree from which Okonkwo’s body was hanging and they stopped in their tracks” (Achebe 127). As everything changes around him, he reaches his breaking point and hangs himself, even though it goes against Igbo tradition. Throughout Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart, the struggle between change and tradition is one of the most pertinent issues. The Igbo villagers, Okonkwo and his son Nwoye, all experience this problem in different ways. The villagers find their religion challenged, Okonkwo reaches his breaking point, and Nwoye finally finds what he believes in. People have struggled to identify and cope with change and tradition throughout history, and will continue to struggle with this problem around the world.