Chinua Achebe’s, Things Fall Apart could be considered a modern-day epic. Achebe’s main character in the novel: Okonkwo compares to the heroic figure of Odysseus, in Homer’s epic The Iliad. Okonkwo embodies the early ideals, characteristics, and traditions of his people and/or nation. And through Achebe’s dignified literary style, and use of language-Okonkwo represents the concept of self and society, and of the culture class during Africa’s colonization by western philosophy.
Okonkwo is introduced to the reader with a sense of urgency and importance in the opening sentence: “Okonkwo was well know throughout the nine villages and even beyond.” (Achebe 3) The reason was a result of him bringing honor to his village for being the fiercest wrestler when he was a younger man. Achebe’s physical description of Okonkwo is one of reverence, and could be used to describe many of the men in Umuofia. He is large, and his facial structure makes him seem to wear an angry expression at all times. The fact that his three wives could hear him breath while he slept, even though they lived in separate houses creates a strong image. Okonkwo personality is that of quick to anger and prone to expressing his anger through his fists. One important quality of Okonkwo is his desire to be successful-he has no patience for men like his father who had taken no title and died heavily in debt.
As a result of Okonkwo’s need for success comes his strength of working harder and longer than anyone else. In his village of Umuofia, men were recognized by there worth not by a patriarchal system. This is important for Okonkwo because he did not inherit a barn from his father, and was forced to borrow his first seed-yams from a rich man in the village. Yams were a sign of manliness in Umuofia, a man was considered great if he “could feed his family on yams from one harvest to another”. (Achebe 33) Yams required constant work and attention for an entire harvest, and Okonkwo reveled in the sowing of the yams. Achebe shows Okonkwo’s desire to work by explaining how he never became too overly enthusiastic over village feasts because it involved sitting for days, while Okonkwo would rather have been working. Working is a release for Okonkwo, and when there is no work to be done he would take is fury out on his...
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... the messengers of the District Commissioner. Okonkwo is destroyed, his personal life and his clan had been taken over by the white man, and the other clansmen had lost their will to fight. Okonkwo’s only choice was suicide; he died in the same manner of his father-without a burial from his fellow clansman.
Okonkwo embodied a culture that has long been forgotten, and largely been fictionalized in early western literature. Achebe offers a more factual account of a once proud culture that has suffered as a result of the injustices of western colonization. Okonkwo represents the proud history of Africa, and how contrary to Western prejudices his people had something to offer the world. Okonkwo wasn’t without his flaws, but more importantly he was a proud man who was devoted to his family and even more so to the clan. But when confronted with a new culture that threatens the things that hold Okonkwo’s culture together, he becomes demoralized. He realizes that his clan was falling apart as a result of the white men, and that he would rather take his own self rather than live in this new society.
Work Cited
Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. Random House, New York (1994)
Okonkwo is known throughout Umuofia to be extremely masculine. He rarely shows signs of fear or weakness. This is because Oknokwo promised himself he would be the complete opposite of his father Unoka. Unoka had passed away ten years prior to when the story takes place but he has always been remembered as a weak, lazy, poor man who could barely provide for his family. He was always in debt and didn't care to work, he would play his flute all day everyday if he was able to. "People laughed at him because he was a loafer, and they swore never to lend him any more money because he never paid back" (5). Unoka was the laugh of the town and Okonkwo would never allow himself be that.
Okonkwo is on two ends of a stick. Sometimes he can be shown to be a caring, sympathetic character, but others he is shown as a ruthless person that is very unsympathetic person. Okonkwo is a man of action that would rather solve things with his fists rather than talking it out. He is a great wrestler hailing from the Umuofia clan that has thrown Amalinze the Cat. Okonkwo is also a very good farmer, where he has been able to grow two barns worth of yams. He is someone that doesn’t know how to control themselves when they get angry as he will then resort to violence. Okonkwo’s family relationships make him a sympathetic character because of his caregiving nature and hospitality and he is shown to be an unsympathetic character because of his
Okonkwo, the main character in Achebe’s novel, begins as an individual who holds great power in the Umuofi...
In Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo is a tragic hero. Aristotle’s Poetics defines a Tragic Hero as a good man of high status who displays a tragic flaw (“hamartia”) and experiences a dramatic reversal (“peripeteia”), as well as an intense moment of recognition (“anagnorisis”). Okonkwo is a leader and hardworking member of the Igbo community of Umuofia whose tragic flaw is his great fear of weakness and failure. Okonkwo’s fall from grace in the Igbo community and eventual suicide, makes Okonkwo a tragic hero by Aristotle’s definition.
Okonkwo was introduced as an accomplished and ambitious man, known far and wide for his rapid rise to fame. Of all his attributes, he most widely was known for his strength, he was introduced with a wrestling match that ended in Okonkwo’s victory against someone formerly undefeated. Immediately afterwards, he was physically described as tall and strong. This emphasizes one of Okonkwo’s most recognizable traits. His masculinity. Often associated with this trait, was his fiery temper, immediately after his physical description, Okonkwo was described as an impatient person that pounced on others often, a person that “...whenever he was angry… he would use his fists.” (Pg. 4) . Due to these traits, many, even his son Nwoye, feared Okonkwo. These traits and his belief that showing affection is showing weakness, lead to the constant suppression of another important trait of Okonkwo, his fondness for those he respect and love. Though some of these traits were suppressed, all of them were reflected to a great extent in his interactions with those closest to him.
Okonkwo is not all that he may seem; as there is more than what meets the eye. Okonkwo is the primary protagonist within the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Okonkwo is a cruel yet kind man who has everything yet has nothing, which in turn creates a sympathetic character. A character such as Okonkwo has many facets; or masks if you will. Then we have his many influences: the Ibo culture; his father Unoka and of course his own personality. Then there is a staggering list of achievements. Okonkwo is a strong character but thinks only inwardly - especially towards his father - which will be discussed further in this essay.
When the structure of Umuofia began to change, Okonkwo found himself incapable of adapting like the rest of the villagers. He was determined to live a life that could not survive the changing world, and his dreams crumbled. Throughout the novel, Achebe demonstrates that the lack of being able to adapt to change will leave you lost in society. Since his childhood, Okonkwo has always been ashamed of his father, Unoka. Unoka was rarely able to feed his children, which made Okonkwo scared and embarrassed.
Although the reader feels remorseful for Okonkwo’s tragic childhood life. It is another reason to sympathize with a man who believes he is powerful and respected by many when in reality, he is feared by his own family and that is another reason that leads Okonkwo to his downfall. He started positive, motivated but down the line, Okonkwo treats his wife and children very harshly. When the author mentioned, “Okonkwo ruled his household with a heavy hand. His wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper, and so did his little children” (pg.13).
Okonkwo wanted to become one of the greatest men in the Ibo tribe, but three unfortunate events occur bringing him closer to his end. Okonkwo was a proud, industrious figure who through hard work was able to elevate himself to a stature of respect and prominence in his community. The one major character flaw was that he was a man driven by his fear to extreme reactions. Okonkwo was petrified of inadequacy namely because his father was a complete and utter failure. This fear of shortcoming made him hate everything his father loved and represented: weakness, gentleness, and idleness. Who was Okonkwo, well Okonkwo was a hero and also he...
Unfortunately, the clash of the cultures that occurs when the white man's missionaries come to Africa in an attempt to convert the tribal members, causes Okonkwo to lash out at the white man and results in his banishment from the tribe. Okonkwo had a bad temper which he often displayed: Okonkwo ruled his household with a heavy hand. His wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper, and so did his little children. Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear of failure and of weakness.
The character of Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart was driven by fear, a fear of change and losing his self-worth. He needed the village of Umuofia, his home, to remain untouched by time and progress because its system and structure were the measures by which he assigned worth and meaning in his own life. Okonkwo required this external order because of his childhood and a strained relationship with his father, which was also the root of his fears and subsequent drive for success. When the structure of Umuofia changed, as happens in society, Okonkwo was unable to adapt his methods of self-evaluation and ways of functioning in the world; the life he was determined to live could not survive a new environment and collapsed around him.
...rgivable. The clan considered "it an abomination for a man to take his own life" (Achebe 207). Okonkwo went from being someone that his clansman respected to a stranger that no one cared about.
It is important to note that Achebe was a product of both traditional Igbo society and the colonizing British culture. Therefore, the narrative is influenced by two strikingly opposed philosophies. The tragic hero, Okonkwo, may have been crafted to express, not only the Igbo philosophy of harmony, but the outsider interpretation of a seemingly paradoxical belief system. Achebe's representation of Okonkwo may symbolize the collision of these two conflicting philosophies.
]k Adegbite O. came to a similar conclusion about Okonkwo’s views on masculinity and femininity when he makes the remark in his essay that, “Okonkwo is of the opinion that traditional men have lost their place in society and cannot be termed ‘worthy’ anymore as Western culture has softened their resolve; men have been turned to weaklings by colonisation and the white man’s religion” (Tobalase, “Masculinity and Cultural Conflict in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart”).
Well-acclaimed author, Chinua Achebe from Wes Africa, is recognized worldwide for his exquisite and intelligent usage of literary devices to bring to the limelight pertinent issues facing the African continent, more specifically Nigeria. He introduces the world to his main character Obi Okonkwo whom; through his eyes, a glimpse is given into the world of a Nigerian .In Things Fall Apart, his first of three novels, Okonkwo, upon his arrival from England is completely detached from his African heritage. From the novel, it is noticed that Obi Okonkwo slowly becomes a part of a dominant class whose corruption he finds repugnant. In an effort to choose between the acceptance of traditional values and the pleasures of a fast changing world, Obi finds himself in a tight fix .He is faced with growing pressures from the expectations of his family, his community, and the larger society around him. With unprecedented lucidity and a growing passion, Chinua Achebe’s No Longer at Ease remains till date a brilliant account of the challenges facing Nigeria today. This paper seeks to examine the representation of the colonial experiences of Obi Okonkwo in the fiction of Chinua Achebe.