More handpicked essays just for you.
Othello character essay on iago
Character analysis of Iago of William Shakespeare's Othello
Othello character essay on iago
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
In the novel Things Fall Apart, the concept of chi becomes positive or negative in Okonkwo’s mind based on whether he’s striving for success or trying to maintain the success he already has.
In the novel Things Fall Apart, chi is a concept that is based around a character’s individual god, in this case, the character Okonkwo. A character's quality is determined by their fortune, whether it's a good or bad chi. The idea of the chi controls and determines a character’s luck or misfortune which can be seen in the novel through the Umuofia clan. The character Okonkwo has a strong relationship with his chi, while it helps him reach a new level of achievement. Okonkwo is introduced as a man who was never lucky, always struggling against poverty and minimal success (26). Okonkwo beat these hardships by working toward the title he deserved. While going through these difficult of times, Okonkwo achieved fame at an early age due to his determined attitude. His fame was due to his success as being the greatest wrestler in all of Umuofia. This was known not to be luck, but by having a good personal god, the chi. The Igbo people of the
…show more content…
land believe when a man says yes, his chi also agrees. Due to this theory, Okonkwo said yes, very often, so his chi followed (27). Okonkwo was determined to say yes because he knew if he worked hard, success would follow. Okonkwo’s attitude toward the chi changed when his priorities in life changed. Okonkwo was under the assumption that the chi was changing with him, when in truth, the chi never changed, only his outlook on life and how to persevere. As Okonkwo’s perspective on life was changing, he felt his chi wasn’t there to help him. At this time in the novel Okonkwo had reached a low point in his life. While attending the funeral of Ezeudu, Okonkwo shot his sixteen year old son (121). Although the incident was an accident, it seemed to Okonkwo that his chi was against him, because he didn’t mean to commit such a horrific crime. After the accident, Okonkwo’s perspective on life completely changed. In Igbo culture, it was a fact that a man could not rise beyond the destiny of his chi, which was becoming true for Okonkwo. While a man would say yes, his chi would also agree. In this case, Okonkwo’s chi did not say yes, even though he did (131). Okonkwo felt his chi had completely turned against him and he could not achieve anything more than he already had. This caused Okonkwo to lose all his passions including his life goal, which no longer seemed attainable. Through the hardship, including Okonkwo’s incident of the shooting, it wasn’t his chi that was causing the trouble, but Okonkwo’s negative attitude toward life and the success he chose to lose hold of. Similar to how Okonkwo has it, in our society today, if we do not work toward our goals and dreams, they will never be achievable.
Okonkwo is very lost on the idea that success is not granted to us without doing the work to earn it. This idea works the same in our society today, especially in school. When a student works hard and takes the time to put forth their best effort, their results are positive. Although, when a student doesn’t put forth their strongest effort, they can’t expect to get the outcome they were hoping for. Earning success is a continuous cycle that is achievable, when the dedication is there. Okonkwo wrestles with this idea throughout the novel, blaming his failure on his chi. While Okonkwo is under the belief that his chi turns positive or negative based on his success status, the truth lies in his attitude toward
life.
Okonkwo, a fierce warrior, remains unchanged in his unrelenting quest to solely sustain the culture of his tribe in the time of religious war in Achebe's book, Things Fall Apart. He endures traumatic experiences of conflict from other tribes, dramatic confrontations from within his own family, and betrayal by his own tribe.
Their beliefs are completely opposite each other because of Okonkwo's need to fulfill his own pressures and ideal image, which he burdens himself with. Certain characteristics he holds which his father does not is seriousness, determination, and brutality. Okonkwo cannot move on from his past, instead he forces his future to be effected by his past, which results in his emotional separation from others around him. Oknonkwo describes his father as "lazy, improvident and quite incapable of thinking about tomorrow.
Both characters have life goals before the fall. “In Things Fall Apart, Achebe makes it clear that Okonkwo’s single passion was ‘to become one of the lords of the clan’. According to Achebe, it was Okonkwo’s ‘life spring.’ Okonkwo wanted to be a hero,” claims Nnoromele (41). In becoming a great man and hero he must overcome the shame his father has left upon him. His father was lazy and had no titles. This helps motivate him on the road to heroism.
It challenged his identity by losing his high title in the clan due to the change in the village as well as new customs. He responded to the clash of cultures by attempting to encourage others to fight in his mission to get rid of the Western influences in the Ibo community. Because he failed to do so, he lost hope and refused to accept the new culture which caused him to hang himself. The conflict between Okonkwo and his clan’s decision to change their way of living was portrayed through characterization and plot development. Achebe gives the people of Africa a voice with Okonkwo’s character who stayed true to his roots. In Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe reveals to us Okonkwo’s response as the cultural collision of the English and Ibo challenged his sense of
Okonkwo is “a man of action, a man of war” (7) and a member of high status in the Igbo village. He holds the prominent position of village clansman due to the fact that he had “shown incredible prowess in two intertribal wars” (5). Okonkwo’s hard work had made him a “wealthy farmer” (5) and a recognized individual amongst the nine villages of Umuofia and beyond. Okonkwo’s tragic flaw isn’t that he was afraid of work, but rather his fear of weakness and failure which stems from his father’s, Unoka, unproductive life and disgraceful death. “Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and weakness….It was not external but lay deep within himself. It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father.” Okonkwo’s father was a lazy, carefree man whom had a reputation of being “poor and his wife and children had just barely enough to eat... they swore never to lend him any more money because he never paid back.” (5) Unoka had never taught Okonkwo what was right and wrong, and as a result Okonkwo had to interpret how to be a “good man”. Okonkwo’s self-interpretation leads him to conclude that a “good man” was someone who was the exact opposite of his father and therefore anything that his father did was weak and unnecessary.
Throughout the story of Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo has continuously appeared as an individual. While he was part of the Iguedo tribe, he always stood out in some way, whether because of his stubbornness or his impulsiveness. As a human being, he was not perfect; nevertheless, he was an asset to the village being a great warrior and strong worker, who proved himself over and over again by building himself a life after the disgrace of his father and after his exile. He hoped that on his return to Iguedo, he could continue to build an even greater life than before, where he could prove his greatness as a man once more. How...
In the novel the Chi is a powerful spirit that determines a man's lot in life. One such instance is when Okonkwo was disbanded from his home for a Feminine murder; Clearly his personal god or Chi was not made for great things. A man could not rise above the destiny of his Chi.
develop a sense of self- awareness. Overall, Okonkwo failed in his quest to raise his son uprightly lost his
Okonkwo's life was driven by his strong desire for status. In Okonkwo’s eyes, status was defined in two parts. The first part being how much respect and how many titles one has. Okonkwo goes to extreme odds to gain respect in his village, Umuofia. Okonkwo’s opinions on success relating to titles is displayed very early on. An example of this
...t should not forget to be humble” (26). The proverb means that one should remember to be demure because they are nothing compared to the controllers of their destiny. The man who has become successful due to his destiny should be grateful. Okonkwo believed that “he had cracked them himself” due to his “grim struggle against poverty” and hard work (27). This goes against respect and implies that Okonkwo rejects the concept of immutable destiny. Yet his own hard work came from his fear of his father’s qualities, and his father was the way he was because of his destiny. Okonkwo’s father chose to accept his destiny of being perpetually indebt and having “taken no titles at all” (8), as seen by the numerous opportunities he had to change his ways. Since Okonkwo was destined to have Unoka as his father and become who he was, he accepted his destiny by working hard.
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.
In the novel Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo is portrayed as a respected and determined individual whose fatal flaw eventually works against him. Throughout the novel the readers are shown that Okonkwo has many of these Characteristics because he is obsessed with the idea of becoming just like his father. This becomes his flaw in the novel that puts him into exile and makes it hard for him to adjust to the changes that were made with in his village.
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).
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a story about personal beliefs,customs, and also a story about an identity confliction. There is struggle between family, culture, and religion of the Ibo tribes. It shows how things fall apart when these beliefs and customs are challenged and how a personal identity changes for a man. The novel concerns the life of Okonkwo, a leader and local wrestling champion throughout the villages of the Ibo ethnic group of Umuofia in Nigeria, Africa, his three wives, and his children. Throughout the novel, Okonkwo is internally challenged and slowly becomes someone that is no longer recognizable by his friends or his family. When Okonkwo faces change, his identity starts to fade.
Okonkwo is a self-made man. He achieves greatness through his own hard work and determination. Okonkwo started his life without the benefits that other young men had. His father, Unoka, was a lazy man. He had acquired no honorary titles. When Unoka died, Okonkwo did not inherit any barn, title, or young wife. He merely acquired his father’s debts. Therefore, Okonkwo sets about to make a name for himself and to achieve greatness in his community. He diligently plants and harvests his yams, building a farm from scratch. He builds a large commune for his family. He marries three wives; one of them was the village beauty. He acquires two titles. Okonkwo is not a failure, like is father was. In Umuofia, “achievement was revered”, and Okonkwo’s achievement was immense (8). He was “clearly cut out for great things” (8). To the Igbo people, Okonkwo epitomizes greatness and success.