Okonkping Themes In Achebe's Things Fall Apart

Kedrick Brooms Me. Wulf E.L.A P.6 E.A- For Things Fall Apart How Okonkwo changed from the beginning and the end of the book Things Fall Apart.

In conclusion, in the book “Things Fall Apart” Okonkwo has constantly made decisions that have affected himself and others in a negative way. In the book, Okonkwo makes countless decisions that had a huge effect on people such as himself, his family, and his clan. Decisions that Okonkwo has made that affected his life and the lives of others are killing Ikemefuna when he was not supposed to, killing a clansman during Ezeudu 's funeral, and committing suicide after he killed the messenger who was sent from the white man to stop Okonkwo 's meeting. These decisions had groundbreaking aftereffects that greatly changed people 's lives and their effects cannot

The hatred that he had for his father he carried with him throughout his whole life. That hatred turned into him killing Ikemefuna and the messenger. Ikemefuna was thought of as a son and he killed him in fear of being considered weak in front of his clan members. That weakness was thought of his weakness which was considered a failure. At the end of the story Okonkwo ends up being just like his father which is ironic because he strived to be nothing like him.

As a child, Nwoye is the frequent object of his father's criticism and remains emotionally unfulfilled. Okonkwo, “wanted Nwoye to grow into a tough man capable of ruling his father’s household when he was dead and gone to join the ancestors”(38). When Nwoye finds out that it is Okonkwo who killed a “brother” who he is extremely fond of, and grows very close with, he loses all appreciation for Okonkwo and decides to go against his father and his cultures.

Within the novel “Things Fall Apart,” the author, Chinua Achebe, explained how a warrior named Okonkwo was a victim of himself. Okonkwo was a victim of tragic events that surrounded his life. These events eventually lead him to his fate. Okonkwo had a father who was weak, and he was a failure in the eyes of the men of the village, Umuofia. Okonkwo’s worst fear was to be the kind of man his father was, so he tried his best not to let his fear become a reality.

Okonkwo contravenes the tribe rule and beats his youngest wife during the week of tranquility and almost shoots his second wife who notes on his gun skill. He kills Ikemefuna, Nwoye's close friend who asks for Okonkwo's help because he was afraid of being weak (Achebe, 1958, p. 43). By trying to be a strong person and deciding to kill Ikemefuna and thrash his wives, Okonkwo not only decline his relationship with his wives and Nwoye, but also impairs himself psychologically. Despite these worsening, it is not until when Okonkwo kills one of the five British court members, that he discovers his tragic

Throughout the story he is constantly fighting the urge to get revenge on humanity, eventually he is corrupted. Victor breaks his promise to the creature of giving him a mate, this strikes the spiral of horrific events that follow. The first act of revenge the monster commits is killing Victor’s best friend Henry Clerval. In Victor perspective when he first discovers Henry has been killed, “when the mark of the fingers was mentioned I remembered the murder of my brother and felt myself extremely agitated”(Shelley 181). The creature aims to let Victor know he is serious about his threat to seek revenge on his wedding day by killing Henry.

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.

Later in the novel, Jonas gets angry at his father, because his father is actually killing people, to his dismay. Jonas’s friend Fiona is also learning to be a Nurturer. When Jonas was releasing really was, he was rightfully outraged. His father worked as a Nurturer, and the sight of his father killing someone made Jonas not want to go home. This moment was the final straw for Jonas.

However, the Bible also gives us examples of people who put to death their worldly passions and pursue righteousness through the discipline of self-control. In the Old Testament, a man named David was chosen to be king during the reign of King Saul. King Saul was jealous of David and wanted him dead so he searched for David in order to kill him. On one particular outing of Saul and his men who were searching to kill David there arose a certain opportunity for David to kill Saul. Saul was in cave and was very vulnerable while David was also deeper inside the cave.

Unfortunately, his life was immediately taken away by a fatal murder that raised Jones’ essence back to heaven. Giving this account to his son meant that Coates wanted him to understand that his own race is unjustly targeted as violent beings. The fact that one of his valued friends was murdered because one white individual claimed that he felt endangered in his presence was repulsive towards Coates. This memory scorned his perception of reality of society in that he repeatedly reasoned himself that they have a negative perception towards black

Soon after Creon hears the news that his son and wife are dead, he says, “Take me away, I beg you, out of sight. A rash indiscriminate fool! I murdered you, my son, against my will- you too, my wife. ”(Sophocles 1459-62). Even though Creon did not mean for his son and wife to die, he actions are what brought them to kill themselves.

Forced to watch his own father die before him, leaving him with nightmares as indicated with Selma, “His name means grinder… Of teeth.” Troubled by terrible dreams, he terrorized the man who slew his father, Hrothgar. All through the movie, we thought Grendel to be the wrongful creature because of the men he murdered, but we had an inkling of doubt. As stated before, Hrothgar states why he killed Grendel’s father and suddenly we knew, Grendel was justified by his terror. He was just a terrified child angry at the man killed his father leaving him an orphan.

Okonkwo is the main character in the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Okonkwo has done many questionable things and he has a very unique mindset and there is no doubt that he is a flawed man. But there is evidence that he is also a good man. So I think that Okonkwo is both a flawed man and a good man. In chapter four of Things Fall Apart Okonkwo’s youngest wife Ojiugo went to a friends house to plait her hair and did not return early enough to cook the afternoon meal so when she got home he beat her very viciously.

There are many definitions of success among the general public. To most people, it means having a good life, a good family, and lots of money. Although the definition might vary, all success involves one important element – hard work. The value and importance of hard work has been proven over and over again in numerous history and literature.