Characters, Setting, and Achebe's Monster

After some time to think about my problem I have decided to modify it somewhat. I am sure this is not the last time I will do this since every day I am hopefully gaining knowledge and new prespectives that help me see problems in a new light. So my revised proposal is the problem of living in the here and now. I have been stuggling with this since I came into drama class freshman year of highschool, but I also believe that many problems across our world are caused by people who are not concentrating on the here and now. The setting for my problem is fluid and constantly changing, no matter what you want to believe. I am not sure yet who I want to focus on for my character. I need some more time to explore this new idea.

Achebe's monster can generally be seen as colonization, but more specifically his monster is the imposing foreign culture that tears up the traditional life he is used to. In the case of Nigeria the British are the people that have become monsters, but any culture that imposes their beliefs on a foreign culture without understanding it and aims to subordnate other people's beliefs can play the monster.

Rousseau presents the savage like a simple being without society, structure, and attachment. The people of Nigeria ovbiously do not fit this mold because they had very complex traditions, culture, and social network. However colonization does illistrate that societies imposed upon people do not function because the people do not know how to live in them and make them function.