Is violence ever the answer? The book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a fictional story about the Ibo tribe during the beginning years of the colonization of Africa. The protagonist Okonkwo is a quick-tempered and abusive man who leads a successful life in the village of Umuofia until he is forced into exile. While in exile in his motherland, European missionaries begin to show up to spread their faith. After returning from exile, the missionaries have grown in strength and control.
He says, "I have done my best to make Nwoye grow into a man, but there is much of his mother in him . "(Achebe, 66). Therefore, Okonkwo asks Nwoye to quit listening to his mother's womanly stories and hear the tales of war. It is only when Ikemefuna arrives that Nwoye begins to behave masculine. After much training, Okonkwo is pleased with Nwoye’s changed behaviour and for this, he credits Ikemefuna.
Okonkwo wants to be the perfect dad for Nwoye so, he does not turn into his grandfather Unoka, but is he doing it the right way? Okonkwo is raising Nwoye to be the opposite of his father Unoka. Okonkwo is ashamed of his father Unoka because when he “died he had taken no title at all and he was heavenly in debt.” Therefore, Okonkwo wants to raise Nwoye to be a successful outgoing, great farmer, villager and man.
“Things fall apart, even when you think they’re stronger than you ever imagined.” ‘Things Fall Apart’, by Chinua Achebe is a book about about the struggles of an African man named Okonkwo and his families life falls apart right before their very eyes. It’s a son duty to carry on the families traditions in this tribe. Although in this story that’s not the case, Okonkwo struggles to get his eldest son Nwoye to act more like a man and less like a woman. Ezinma is Okonkwos favorite child and he wishes that she was a boy because she has all the traits and actions a young man should have. There was another boy named Ike that was almost a role model to Nwoye and almost had Okonkwo conviced his son was becoming a man.
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.
They did not believe in women 's roles. Okonkwo verbally shut down the importance of woman in the society along with the other men and Ibo. When Okonkwo was upset with his wives or any other woman in his life he would abuse them to show who has a seniority. Letting the village exile him was disappointing because it showed that he no longer had power. Through committing suicide he held all the power in his life.
“[...] I shall fight alone if I choose” (Achebe 201). He then beheads a messenger of the white men, though no one tried to help him in his fight. In the realization that his beloved land Umuofia wouldn’t help him in his war, Okonkwo took his life in the most shameful way you could.
“He wanted Nwoye to grow into tough young man capable of ruling his father’s household when he was dead and gone to join the ancestors” (52). Okonkwo continued to push his son towards being more masculine, but after the death of Ikemefuna, Nwoye strays as far as possible from what his father thinks to be the right path. Nwoye had become afraid of his father and it pushes him to join the missionaries after their family is exiled, perhaps the most feminine thing his father can imagine. The rift between them is so great that Nwoye tells Obierika, “He is not my father”
Until the 1950’s most African literature was written by Europeans. Chinua Achebe, a Nigerian author, changed this standard in 1958, when he wrote Thing Fall Apart. In his novel, Achebe details the life of Okonkwo, an African man living in the village of Umuofia during the colonization of Nigeria. Okonkwo’s greatest struggle throughout his life and the novel is his fear of looking weak. His fear is apparent through his thoughts and actions.
Some individuals have lost these things due to colonization. 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.