Specified Cultural Analysis: Things Fall Apart
Specified Cultural Analysis: Things Fall Apart Imagine losing everything that you had that held a significance for you, your status in your community, your wealth, and your family members. You would naturally try to find that point in your life where things fell apart and the unravelling began. The protagonist of Chinua Achebe’s, “Things Fall Apart”, Okonkow was not able to figure out what event caused his life’s tipping point. What was the reason that his life and his “chi”, his personal god, were out of synch? Okonkow’s fear is the most palatable emotion throughout his story.
Okonkow’s fear of being thought weak, an ineffective leader, and losing his position in the village, actually led to most of his reactions and decisions in his life.
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The compensation for the loss of the Umofia daughter was done to avoid a war because the Umofia clan had a reputation as being skilled warriors (Achebe, 1994). This method of dealing with righting wrongs has an extremely civilized feel to it. No other lives were lost and the debt was repaid with no hard feelings. Additionally, war had to be approved by the village Oracle and was not to be engaged in lightly (Achebe, 1994). With the gift of Ikemefuna to Umofia the stage has been set for Okonkwo’s downfall to begin. Achebe stated that the primary purpose of his novel “Things Fell Apart” was, “…to help my society regain belief in itself and put away the complexes of the years of denigration and self-abasement” (Gagiano, 2014, p. 1075). To accomplish that goal, the protagonist of his novel had to lose everything that was dear in his life, including his station in the community. The African view of a person does not take into consideration only the individual; the status is in fact defined by the position and standing in the community itself (Oyowe, 2014). Again, to lose that standing is devastating to the
Okonkwo's Loyalty
1030 Words | 5 PagesIn order to achieve this, Okonkwo takes every value of the tribe and radicalizes them to ensure that he accomplishes all of them because “his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness … lest he should be found to resemble his father” (Achebe 13). Okonkwo is
Okonkwo's Fear
1379 Words | 6 PagesWhen his father turned out to be a pauper who was in large debt, Okonkwo saw everything that Unoka loved as weakness, leading to a lack of these qualities. As Nwoye started to visit the missionaries in Umuofia, Okonkwo began to fear that the new religion was bringing out the more emotional side in his son. In a desperate attempt to stop Nwoye’s fascination, Okonkwo beat him, which only damaged their relationship even more. When the missionaries sent messengers to break up a meeting of the clan, Okonkwo killed one of them. However, no one rallied to his side, and the great warrior killed himself to avoid the punishment.
Theme Of Masculinity In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart
786 Words | 4 PagesOkonkwo devotes his life to becoming the opposite of his unsuccessful father. This need to become masculine introduces his fear: “But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of
Social Status In Things Fall Apart
1027 Words | 5 PagesThe tripartite novel “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe, published in 1958 focuses on the changes taking place in Nigeria, as a result of colonization during the 20th century. Chinua Achebe’s pragmatics when writing the novel focused on changing the perspective of Western readers with regard to African society. He mainly wanted to falsify the assertions in books such as “Heart of Darkness” which he claimed gave people of African descent a dull personality. Social status is one of the novels’ main themes. Chinua Achebe successfully incorporates the importance of social status, giving readers the impression that for the Ibo society, social structure consists mainly of a hierarchy of both skill and strength.
Stereotypes In Things Fall Apart
1145 Words | 5 PagesMany stereotypes of African culture have emerged due to western literature and media and first hand accounts of explorers. Things Fall Apart offers a view into the truth and reality of African cultures, which are often misconceptualized by these stereotypes. Acebe shows how African society functions well without assistance from foreign travelers. In Things Fall Apart, Achebe counters the imperialist stereotypes of Africa by keeping certain words in the Igbo language, as opposed to translating them into English, to fight back against the spreading western culture and to embrace their own way of life. He also counters the imperialist stereotypes of Africa by using Igbo proverbs to show how their culture values many of the same things that western
Change In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart
889 Words | 4 PagesEveryone as a human being has experienced some form of change in our life, big or small, and it has a lasting effect on who they are and how they act. In Chinua Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart’, change is a forward facing theme of the whole story, we see change in all forms occur throughout the book; the arrival of the white men and their changing of the igbo culture, the tearing apart of Okonkwo’s family by religion and traditions, and the change that occurs within Okonkwo himself when he realizes he cannot prevent change from happening in the community and culture he loved. Change is destructive in ‘Things Fall Apart’, especially to such a magnitude as we see in the story, it is destructive to communities, to families, and especially to individuals.
Things Fall Apart Rhetorical Analysis
932 Words | 4 Pages“There is no story that is not true.” (Things Fall Apart 141). Nigerian author, Chinua Achebe, in his historical fiction text, Things Fall Apart, emphasizes that just because a culture is unique does not make it bad or wrong. Achebe wants to reduce the amount of shown ignorance to anyone different and offer insight to the Nigerian people. He assumes a sympathetic tone to Umuofia by connecting his characters to his audience, the Europeans, and Western Civilization.
Annotated Bibliography Things Fall Apart By Chinua Achebe
1600 Words | 7 PagesTimothy Odusote Ms.Calo English 12 , Period 8 January, 29 2016 Annotated Bibliography: Things Fall Apart "Albert Chinualumogu Achebe; 16 November 1930. " Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web.
Things Fall Apart Okonkwo A Tragic Hero
538 Words | 3 Pages“A tragic hero is a person of noble birth with heroic or potentially heroic qualities. This person is fated by the Gods or by some supernatural force to doom and destruction or at least to great suffering.” Okonkwo in the book, “Things Fall Apart” is the character we follow though the whole story. His biggest fear is being looked upon like his father, who was a failure in everyone 's eyes and lived a life of hardship. Okonkwo is a tragic hero because he is important in Igbo society and ultimately led to his own downfall due to his fear of being weak.
Religion In Igbo Society
769 Words | 4 Pages“He mourned for the clan, which he saw breaking up and falling apart, and he mourned for the warlike men of Umoufia, who had so unaccountably become soft like women” (Achebe 183). His sense of identity therefore was affected because he no longer knew what his religion had become. Okonkwo then tries to take matters into his own hands by killing the messenger as one final attempt to save his village, though his actions resulted in an extreme repercussion. “Then they came to the tree from which Okonkwo’s body was dangling, and they stopped dead” (Achebe 207). Western society negatively influenced Okonkwo, to the extent in which he had to commit suicide to avoid punishment.
Okonkwo And Igbo Culture Analysis
1178 Words | 5 PagesHannah Lee Mrs White AP Literature 27 October 2014 The Death of Okonkwo and Igbo Culture The classic novel Things Fall Apart, written by a Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, has accounts of the Igbo people’s ways of living until the arrival of the Europeans who bring social and cultural change to Africa. In response to the stark negative portrayal of Africa by the biased European colonialists, the author attempts to reveal both problems and beauty in the African ethics; in order to provide a sharp criticism of imperialism, Achebe portrays the main character Okonkwo’s resistance in conforming to the new culture brought by the colonialists.
Religion In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart
936 Words | 4 PagesReligion is one of the most important things in daily lives; it affects people’s beliefs, the culture and how people behave. This is no exception to literary works either. In the novel, Things Fall Apart written by Chinua Achebe is about a man named Okonkwo who lives in the Umuofia in Africa. The story reveals the lives true lives of African culture during the time of Europeanions invading the country. Throughout the book, religion is brought up many times.
Tragic Hero In Achebe's Things Fall Apart
866 Words | 4 PagesThroughout his whole life he was trying to be the man which was opposite his father; not weak, and poor. When he comes face to face with his true identity, he commits suicide, which portrays him as a tragic hero. Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is relevant in today’s world because it questions the voice of native African’s identity. Achebe’s visionary regarding Things
Traditional African Igbo Culture In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart
1629 Words | 7 PagesAchebe has written the novel Things Fall Apart in response to the James Cary’s novel Mister Johnson, which depicts the Nigerian life from the white outsider’s
Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart
869 Words | 4 PagesOkonkwo was exiled to his motherland and returned to his fatherland after seven years. The White Missionaries arrived in Umuofia to attempt to spread peace and the word of God. At the beginning, the white men were harmless and weren’t feared because they haven’t begun to command changes in their lives. The villagers didn’t understand that their mission was to abolish the customs of the village and replace them with the colonial government’s attitudes and values. The way the white men were undermining the culture of the Igbo people, greatly disturbed Okonkwo.
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