In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo was once considered the greatest warrior alive. Things change and he commits suicide by the end of the story. It is a disgrace to commit suicide in his tribe. For all his life, Okonkwo feared dying like his father without honors at his burial. Although Okonkwo had lived his life as a hard-working man who was a great leader and warrior in his tribe, Okonkwo dies in a disgraceful manner. Achebe's message throughout the novel is that change can be devastating. Truly, the novel "depicts conflicts and tensions within Igbo society as well as changes introduced by colonial rule and Christianity." Struggling to achieve success in the traditional world, Okonkwo, the protagonist, is a talented but inflexible Igbo. He fears becoming like his lazy father who dies with no titles and without honor. Despite his hard work and determination to receive all the titles he can achieve, Okonkwo cannot stop the changes that are happening in his village. He cannot get his tribal men to fight the European Christian white men who have come in to take control and change his village traditions. The District Commissioner who represents the white Europeans comes in to civilize Okonkwo and his tribal people. Ironically, the District Commissioner makes things worse: …show more content…
He commits suicide because he cannot deal with the changes that the Christian white men are making in his village. While the white man from Europe came in to civilize the Igbo tribe, he did not succeed. Indeed, the story of Okonkwo affirms that Europe did not introduce civilization to savages. Okonkwo lost his life because the Christian white man came in and forced his way of life on a people who had already established their own way of
Upon Okonkwo’s return to Umuofia, he recognizes noticeable changes. The white men have built a church and founded a new religion among the people and subjected to follow their rules. As a man of violence, Okonkwo wants to fight the Christians until they leave. His people, on the other hand, have accepted the new ways. It’s evident to Okonkwo that these white men were clever to invite themselves into the tribe and take advantage of the Ibo people’s curiosity.
All that Okonkwo has done is his life is try to achieve more, but when he doesn 't learn to adapt he causes thing to fall apart. As an example, when Okonkwo refuses to listen to the missionaries in chapter twenty-four the messenger said, ‘“The white man whose power you know too well has ordered this meeting to stop.”’ Because Okonkwo never feared the missionaries when he should have he made the fatal mistake that caused him to take his own life.
In most fairy tales and novels a humble male role is used to dictate the normality of writing. In “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo, a strong male role is not only that, a lead character, but he is also cruel and prone to violent tendencies In the novel Okonkwo experiences harsh changes when the white men first came and at the beginning of colonialism. In “Things Fall Apart”, Achebe uses Okonkwo to display the negative change in everyday Igbo culture after colonialism. In this novel by Achebe, before colonialism was introduced, Okonkwo was a known masculine member of Umuofia.
The author, Chinua Achebe, used Okonkwo as an example of the father/son conflict and how the conflict affects a man’s life. Just because one does not always act like the typical strong, almost emotionless man, that does not mean one is coward. Okonkwo’s thought process leads to his demise because he cannot bear to see the strong willed tribe and culture he has known his whole life fail him: just
Okonkwo’s values are restricted to physical strength, power, and prosperity, and when the Europeans suddenly arrive, the cultural convergence prompts Okonkwo to respond with even more violence. While the majority of his tribe, including his son Nwoye, is open to considering
Page 24.) By saying he could survive anything, it is not expected for him to commit suicide. Yet, in the end, his inflexible will causes his suicide because he cannot deal with the change brought by the missionaries. Therefore his death is even more ironic because the very thing that he says can get him through anything is his will, which is why he kills himself. “Then they came to the tree from which Okonkwo 's body was dangling, and they stopped dead.
Okonkwo wanted his tribe to fight back the missionaries in order to protect their Igbo culture but his persistence only led to his downfall. This can be seen when Okonkwo makes a rash decision to kill a messenger thinking Umuofia would fight back but ended up not fighting, “The white man whose power you know too well has ordered this meeting to stop.” In a flash, Okonkwo drew his machete. The messenger crouched to avoid the blow. It was useless.
In the book “Things Fall Apart“ Okonkwo is a very strong man and from time to time he starts showing his true self. He has a lot of responsibilities and other things he has to do around the living environment and interact with lots of people. Okonkwo changes from being that strong man, to a man who feels like his tribe is not with him when he wants to go to war with the missionaries. For someone like Okonkwo a lot of people looks up to him and while in the tribe Okonkwo beats his wives and children. Not good behavior for someone who is supposedly looked at as strong.
In “On Tragedy” Aristotle says “That the change of fortune presented must not be the spectacle of a virtuous man brought from prosperity to adversity”. In “Things Fall Apart” Okonkwo notices a reversal in his society after chopping a messengers head off “He wiped his machete on the sand and went away”(176). This quotation from chapter twenty-four demonstrates Okonkwo’s reversal of character after killing a messenger and getting no response or cheers from his fellow clansmen. Okonkwo’s reversal of character after this occurs is what sets up his suicide. This trait is shown by society’s development to deal with the missionaries and Okonkwo’s way of dealing with them is in conflict with the way his fellow villagers want to be handled.
Okonkwo hates change, and he feels that the missionaries have brought about change through their religion, which has started to affect other aspects of traditional Igbo life and its people. He feels that the men have gotten weaker, hence him feeling proud when the warriors start acting like warriors again in his mind when the village agrees some violent action must be taken against the white man. When the village crier announces that there will be a meeting to discuss what to do about the foreigners following Okonkwo and the other prisoners getting released, Okonkwo is very excited. However, once the meeting gets interrupted by court messengers during a speech about how the white man is desecrating their gods and ancestral spirits, things take a turn for the worst. As soon as the head messenger tells the crowd to disperse “Okonkwo drew his machete.
Colonization has an impact on an individual’s life and can either be positive or negative. In Things Fall Apart, Achebe uses Okonkwo, a tragic hero, to show loss of power and respect due to colonization and to exemplify change can be hard for people. Okonkwo’s identity is dependent on the Igbo Culture. At the beginning of the book, Okonkwo is seen as very strong. Also, Okonkwo only shows the emotion anger because he thinks that is the only emotion that men should show and every other emotion is feminine according to his standards.
Being the only one left who wants to overthrow the missionaries, Okonkwo is driven to kill himself. Many of the things Okonkwo does in his life tend to make things worse for him. Okonkwo’s actions before and after the cultural collision he experiences when
The story ends with his death. Okonkwo is the main character of ‘Things Fall Apart’. Yet, we meet Ezinma, who changes the way we perceive Okonkwo and even the story as a whole. She turns out to represent everything that is expected from a boy in that village except that she is a little girl. We discover, throughout the novel, that this girl shares a strong relationship with her father and brings out a side of him which we do not expect to see.
Upon getting back to the village the Christian’s are there trying to convert his whole tribe. In an uproar Okonkwo kills a Christian messenger and fears for his life because he knows his village will not go to war with the white man. So in the ending Okonkwo decides to kill himself and does. A major theme within the book is th3e struggle between change and tradition.
Okonkwo In literature, there are many characters that stand out and show that they have a variety of qualities about them. In Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo is one character that presents character traits from both the negative and positive sides of him. Okonkwo is portrayed to be a warrior who wanted to become somebody strong and looked up to, but also possesses less favorable qualities. He, however, does not let any one trait dictate his whole personality; he is written to be a well-rounded character.