Things Fall Apart Character Analysis Essay

“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, 153 Online). This was about a character known as Okonkwo, he spent his life devoted to his clan, to improve it and himself, yet in the end he ended his own life, a disgraceful act to his clan. Okonkwo is the protagonist of the novel Things Fall Apart. Introduced as strong and respected man, Okonkwo starts as such but throughout the book many of his choices lead him down a path of tragic events. He is part of Ibo society and culture, the native African culture of the story which praises strength and masculinity while dejecting vulnerability and femininity from its men. The overarching theme in the novel Things Fall Apart is that clinging to strong devotions can cause one’s life to fall apart, seen

An instance of this is when Okonkwo accidentally shoots and kills a boy resulting in his seven-year exile to his mother’s land, once he reaches his mother’s land he slips into a depression, reluctant to work or progress much at all in any sense, as exemplified in the quote, “his [Okonkwo’s] life had been ruled by a great passion—to become one of the lords of the clan… then everything had been broken. He had been cast out of his clan like a fish to dry” (Achebe, 97 Online). This shows how Okonkwo slipped into a state of emptiness, his greatest passion was to become a figurehead of his clan and yet he fell short, sending him crashing into a depression. In particular, Okonkwo was weakened to see everything he built with utmost effort burned to the ground, he fell to a point of devastation in which he could do little but doubt himself as the world he built came crumbling down around him. He was broken through this failure, although he did eventually come back to his strength, staying strong to come back to his clan in his most climactic