Things Fall Apart Essay On the book Things Fall Apart, written by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo struggles to not have failure. What led to Okonkwo 's fate is the changes the white men did in Umuofia. Okonkwo was one of the top leaders of Umuofia; he was well known in Umuofia. Okonkwo was also a warrior he never wanted to look weak so he was always a warrior. Successful and wealthy people farmed and Okonkwo was a good farmer which made him successful and wealthy. Okonkwo was a father but the two main ones were Nwoye and Ezinma. Okonkwo began to have failure when he went to his motherland and returned and the village was changed by the white men. Okonkwo wanted to be well known in Umuofia so therefore he had to become a leader of his village. Okonkwo was well known in Umuofia, he was one of the leaders for Umuofia. Okonkwo’s dad was an unsuccessful man and Okonkwo was pushed to be better than him (Achebe,4). Okonkwo didn 't like unsuccessful people like his father. If Okonkwo didn 't like unsuccessful people people then he would not want to be unsuccessful. When they burned down the church the District Commissioner wanted to talk to the leaders in Umuofia and Okonkwo was one of the six that they wanted to talk to (Achebe,193). They wanted to talk to someone important from Okonkwo’s village so they wanted Okonkwo and five others that were important to Umuofia. Okonkwo with being a leader in Umuofia he was well known there. One reason why Okonkwo was a leader in Umuofia is
" Okonkwo was too proud to have stayed home and done the ethical thing. Okonkwo's pride is displayed throughout the entire book with his constant focus on strength and his fear of being thought of as a coward. Going from the beginning to the end, in chapter 24 Okonkwo kills a head messenger during a meeting. " He knew that Umuofia would not got to war.
Even besides the frequent beatings because although wrong, were normalized in Umuofia, Okonkwo had irreparable anger issues that caused him to lash out at anyone who crossed him in an
The fifth important and unique contribution Achebe made to modern African and world literature is a literary device I call the art of purposeful complexity. The “purposeful” before the word “complexity” is intended to distinguish it from the cacophony of imagery and verbiage that, unfortunately, all too many modernist and post-modernist writers of fiction have gotten into the habit of mistaking for literature. Purposeful complexity is the literary technique of deliberately weaving together into a quilted fabric an impressive tapestry of complementing, conflicting, confirming, confounding, hopeful and disappointing stories of heroic and flawed characters, motives, aspirations, and outcomes, tying them together into a delicately balanced, ironic and powerfully evocative narrative.
When the oracle ordered Okonkwo to kill Ikemefuna, Okonkwo followed the order and he killed his adopted son with his own hands. Nwoye’s got mad with his father and that lead him to convert to Christianity when the Europeans colonize his village. Nwoye’s question his faith and his father’s view, values and beliefs. “What moved Obierika to visit Okonkwo was the sudded appearance of the latter’s son, Nwoye, among the missionaries in Umuofia… And so Obierika went to Mbanta to see his friend.
This quote shows Okonkwo thinks of himself very highly and thinks that he should never fail or show weakness. In addition, “That man was one of the greatest men in Umuofia. You drove him to kill himself; and now he will be buried like a dog.” (Achebe 188). This quote further shows that the colonist that came led to
The novel states, “The story was told in Umuofia, of how his father, Unoka, had gone to consult the oracle of the Hills and the caves to find out why he always had a miserable harvest”(Achebe,1959,p.16). Okonkwo’s dad was desperate to know why he was struggling to grow his
In Umuofia, Okonkwo has a high title, earned by demonstrating his achievement in his city. He is recognized everywhere for being a great wrestler who beat Amalinze the Cat. In chapter one, it says that “He brought honor to his village by throwing Amalinze the Cat” (Achebe 3). Okonkwo made it his goal to demonstrate himself powerfully to the community because his father, Unoka, was the opposite. The emotional, lazy, gentile, and unsuccessful Unoka was interested in music and drinking, and he didn 't try hard to make a name for himself.
Okonkwo’s Greatest Character Flaws In the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Achebe writes a lot about family relationships and customs in the Igbo Clan. There is an important man named Okonkwo in the clan who is a very powerful part of the clan who had a large family. Okonkwo would lose sight of his family over his fear of weakness and failure. This caused him to mistreat his family and have irrational reactions to things that could have been resolved.
Rick Godwin once said, “One reason people resist change is because they focus on what they have to give up, instead of what they have to gain”. In the novel “Things Fall Apart”, by Chinua Achebe Okonkwo resists changes when the british missionaries arrive and it causes conflicts throughout the novel. His defiance, warrior-like, manliness behavior leads him to his suicide when he realizes change sometimes can not be controlled. Okonkwo’s nobility and prosperity is revealed through his success and leadership within the clan. Aristotle stated in “On Tragedy” that “He must be one who is highly renowned and prosperous.”.
Okonkwo Falls Apart Chinua Achebe offers a rare look at the natives perspective during colonialism in his work Things Fall Apart. The central struggle in the main character Okonkwo is that he is beginning to lose his way of life, and he is not able to do anything about it. Conflicts in religious beliefs with the arrival of the missionaries heightens Okonkwo 's internal aggression, and his inability to adapt leads to his downfall.
Fear is the core cause of the dramatic shift of lifestyle for both Okonkwo and Nwoye. Through the management of reputation and the avoidance of their father’s likeness, Okonkwo and Nwoye built new lives for themselves. Okonkwo sought power and authority to prove his masculinity and make up for Unoka’s reputation as a weak man. He did this to the point where manliness became his character. Fearlessness and violence were masculine qualities that in Igbo culture signifies strength and influence.
By the time Okonkwo came back to Umuofia the missionaries had a strong hold on the society. If he has been there when they first got there he would’ve tried to send them back to where they came from and protect his culture. Igbo culture is all that he’s ever known and the threat to that made him question and not want their culture around him and his
From being nothing in his village he rises to be a great, honorable, successful leader of umuofia. He also has a tragic flaw of being weak, failure and having fear that leads him to fail at things several times because of his fears. All of these failures then lead him to his suicide. Finally, he finds his own tragic fate because of his murder of the missionaries court messenger during his villages meeting. Though Okonkwo's life started out as one of the most successful and leading men of Umuofia but because of his violent and impulsive characteristics, even the most successful and well-respected man can fall from his
Okonkwo longed to become the
Okonkwo is a very well-respected and independent man in Umuofia due to his titles and hard work. Even though he seems put together and stern, his life is dictated by fear. His fear of becoming like his father led him to helping in the murder of Ikemefuna, beating his wives and children, and disowning his oldest son, Nwoye. As a main character, Okonkwo remains pretty much the same throughout the book, his biggest issue being his inability to have compassion. Who might he not have compassion for and why?