Part 1: “Things Fall Apart” is a story which starts by giving descriptions of the main character Okonkwo. Okonkwo is a much known wrestler through the nine villages. Out of the nine villages he is leader of Umuofia. The way he rose to fame was very devastating knowing that his father was a bum and having to lose his mother at a very young age. The reason Okonkwo believes his father is a bum is due to the fact his father Unoka was a failure. Unoka had owed money to every neighbor he lived around. Unfortunately Okonkwo father has passed away. Since then Okonkwo knowing he has no parents to look up to has been working hard to take care of himself. He has become a wonderful farmer and one of the greatest wrestlers to be known out of the nine …show more content…
Ever since he became leader of Umuofia they have been known to be one of the fiercest men out of the countries around them. One day the leaders of Umuofia were given an objective to take care a boy name Ikemefuna until they have found a reasonable punishment for a crime he has committed. Okonkwo was following the objective of taking care of him until then. Okonkwo would make sure Ikemefuna would help him around the house with the farm that way it would be easier on Okonkwo to work. As years went by Okonkwo enjoyed having Ikemefuna around until the day has come for his punishment. As they tell Okonkwo his punishment, Okonkwo was devastated. Ikemefuna punishment was for him to die and Okonkwo was the one who killed him. Towards the end of part one Okonkwo is going to a feast for his friend Obierika who is celebrating his daughter’s uri. An uri is part of the betrothal ceremony when the dowry is paid. At the end the feast was going very well and everyone was having a great time dancing and …show more content…
As he returns home he notices the changes of Umoufia and feels disgust. He hears the story of the white men having to try to change the way they see religion and how there is only one God. They have built schools for the kids in Umuofia and other villages that way they would attend and learn new ways of how the white men see things. Okonkwo notices and wants to do something about it. The whole village is surprised to see Okonkwo and his family return home and seeing how everyone has grown up. Next the whole family goes back to their old house to get situated. Okonkwo is willing to do something to the white men trying to get rid of them any way how. So he has two plans. The first plan would be for him to kill the white men. The second plan would be to just try to scare them away. His friends tell him killing the white men would just give more problems and that there was no need to kill them. Then they receive an invitation from the commissioner saying how he wants the six important leaders to see him. As the six leaders attend and Okonkwo being one of them, the commissioner just wants them to pay a fine for the crime they have done. If they didn’t they would be held until they pay the fine. They wouldn’t pay so then the white men would treat the six leaders with disrespect so they eventually payed the fine. When they got out no one has spoken to them until Okonkwo decided to
Okonkwo was deeply grieved. And it was not just a personal grief. He mourned for the clan, which he saw breaking up and falling apart, and he mourned for the warlike men of Umofia, Who had so unaccountably become soft like women.
“They will take him outside Umofia, as is the custom, and kill him there. But I want you to have nothing to do with it. He calls you his father. (57)” This quote explains that Ogbuefi expresses concern for Okonkwo, because the Oracle explains how it would be wrongful of Okonkwo to kill Ikemefuna. “Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak. (61)” This quote portrays that Okonkwo completely disregarded what Ogbuefi and the Oracle cautioned him about, because he was too concerned about his status of what others thought of him. “At last the man was named and people sighed “E-u-u, Ezeudu is dead.” A cold shiver ran down Okonkwo’s back as he remembered the last time the old man had visited him. (121)” At this point in the story, it appears that Okonkwo is starting to realize his wrongdoings, primarily because he takes religion and his spiritual life very seriously, in regards towards the Oracle. Okonkwo begins to lose trust within his family, especially with Nwoye. (As mentioned in the previous paragraph.) In the beginning of the book, Okonkwo relied on Ikemefuna to help Nwoye become more masculine and tough. After Ogbuefi warns Okonkwo about taking part in the murder, Okonkwo thinks about what could happen to him once the gods find out. Once again, Okonkwo lets his emotions
When Okonkwo cut down the guard, he made the swift assumption that his clansmen were as passionate about fighting colonialism as him and would follow him into war. When he found out otherwise, he could not understand what had happened to his village. The next place he was seen was hanging from a noose in a selfish show of hypocrisy. In the end, Okonkwo's status among his tribe counted for nothing because his own despair over the colonization of his village led him to kill himself. His whole life Okonkwo strived not to look weak like his father, but in the end he took the cowards way out, suicide.
... a rat when it was caught by the tail and dashed against the floor”(Achebe, 63). He refused to eat for two days straight and only drank palm wine. This shows that he felt he did something horrific and knew it was wrong, but only because society and culture dictated that he had to kill Ikemefuna. Thus, Okonkwo evokes sympathy within the reader because he is not only a product of society.
Okonkwo doesn't want to compromise his beliefs. He dies hopeless and aware of the future of his community. Antigua is in a state of disarray. The corruption left by the British rule is evident throughout the island. The exploitation of the land by the whites proves their lack of morality.
Okonkwo is often described as being similar to characters in Greek tragedies. Okonkwo knew that the end of his clan was coming, and that they would do nothing to prevent it from happening. He took his life out of desperation. He had struggled his whole life to become a respected member of his community, and suddenly his world is turned upside down and changed forever because of an accident. Okonkwo sees that he is fighting a losing battle, so he quits. Suicide was one of the biggest offenses that could be committed against the earth, and Okonkwo?s own clansmen could not bury him. Okonkwo?s death symbolizes the end of patriarchy in Umuofia. The last page of the book is from the point of view of the white Commissioner, who notes that he wants to include a paragraph on Okonkwo?s life in his book entitled The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of Lower Niger. Okonkwo?s struggles, triumphs and defeats are all reduced to a paragraph, much like his culture and society will be reduced.
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.
Unlike his father, Okonkwo is a hard worker with little debt and a driven personality. His internal fear leads to his decision to beat his wife during the week of peace and to take part in the mandatory action of killing his beloved son, Ikemefuna.
As you see, Okonkwo was a deprived man after hearing about the whites expanding their beliefs and customs to Umuofia. Being unable to contain it, he had no choice but to give in. Okonkwo wanted to go to war and fight the invading Europeans, but he soon realized that he was the only one hungry for war. “I shall fight alone if I choose” (Achebe 201). Being the only one seeking for revenge, he had no choice but to behead the head messenger who was trying to end a clan meeting. Letting the other messengers escape, Okonkwo’s visual was the truth. “He knew that Umuofia would not go to war” (Achebe 205). Everything that he stood for was now distant. His once powerful and running clan was now weak and resistant to fight off enemies. What was the point to live when everything else had failed him and he could do nothing to resolve it? He struggled with the changes occurring in the tribe. He was known as a very strong and honorable tribesman, but when the whites arrived promoting Christianity and other tribe members began to change as a result, even his own son, he could not bear the change. While viewing the others as weak, like his father, he tries to remain strong against change however he is the only one. Killing the messenger was the last attempt to try and save the tribe from the influence of the white man. Seeing the others not join in his action, he loses hope and in desperation ends his life
Overall, Okonkwo is a crucial part to the story Things Fall Apart, for he represents African culture, and helps demonstrate how colonization can change everything. Through this book we see how colonization changed history, and how it is important for groups, tribes, societies to stay together in times of invasion, in order to protect their own customs and traditions; and how crucial a sense of unity would've been for the Umuofian tribe. Okonkwo was the sense of unity of the tribe, doing everything he could could to protect it. His collection of honorable titles, his love for his tribes culture, his drive and passion, and even his booming pride all contribute to his district character, a true hero in my eyes.
When he went out into Umuofia, he found that the villagers had very similar opinions towards his father. As soon as he was old enough, Okonkwo began farming yams because “he had to support his mother and two sisters [.] And supporting his mother also meant supporting his father” (25). He received admiration from many people for this, and he turned the admiration into a feeling of security, knowing that the people of Umuofia did not think the same of him as they did his father. He began to respect himself a lot, and felt that it was appropriate to distance himself from Unoka.
Okonkwo’s determination to succeed in life and to not fail leads to his fatal downfall in the end of the novel. His inability to adapt to colonization and his failure to follow the morals of many of the morals of the Ibo culture also are an important key leading to his downfall. Okonkwo was willing to go to war against the missionaries, with or without the clan. He made it clear that he believed the missionaries were in the wrong for trying to change Umuofia. Since the clan wanted no part in the war with the missionaries, Okonkwo took action into his own hands and murdered the head messenger. During the killing of the messenger, Okonkwo had a moment of realization: “He knew that Umuofia would not go to war. He knew because they had let the other messengers escape. They had broken into tumult instead of action” (Achebe 205). Okonkwo finally understands that he doesn’t have support from his fellow clansmen anymore and he feels as if he loses his place in society. Instead of backing up Okonkwo and his decision to murder the messenger, the clan stood in both confusion and disorder and questioned, “ ‘Why did [Okonkwo] do it?’ ” (Achebe 205). Okonkwo’s impulsiveness causes the clansmen to question Okonkwo’s violent actions against the messenger. Throughout the entire novel, Okonkwo struggles to accept the missionaries and the changes that they
The clan wants to go to war with the white men: however, before anything can be done, five messengers appear and Okonkwo gets very angry and
It was a village conference contemplating war, but Okonkwo knows they will not take his side and choose war. We all know Okonkwo is all about actions, so what does he do? He kills the messenger sent by the District Commissioner. Here is how he killed the innocent man, the narrator states, “Okonkwo’s machete descended twice and the man’s head lay beside his uniformed body,”(204). He felt defeated, Okonkwo did not do anything more violent.
...clansmen come to decide what they should do, Okonkwo has already chosen war. As the messenger arrives to order an end to the meeting, Okonkwo is once again driven by his rage and kills the messenger. He realizes that the others were not prepared to fight, and he comes to understand the consequences of his actions. Instead of being executed, Okonkwo decides to take his own life.