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Themes of culture conflict in chinua achebe's
Themes of culture conflict in chinua achebe's
American literature has many ethnic groups
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The book Things Fall Apart, aged to be among the greatest books of all time, is essentially a novel that revolves around the life of man, Okonkwo, who appears to be motivated by the way the society views him rather than meet his ego (Otiono 204). He ends up engaging in actions that seem to be directed as making him to be in harmony with the villagers. The author artistically makes his main character to undergo tribulations as a way of passing the message of how events can have deleterious effect to one’s reputation. In fact, in many cases, Okonkwo turns out to be successful but in the significant situations, he fails and is even excommunicated in the process. Many other incidences that display the broken ties with one’s kinship in the novel, …show more content…
but the storyline revolving around the main actor remains relevant for the theme. Through the way the author presents Okonkwo’s act of anger in various scenes, the theme of the main actor being a tragic hero holds steadfast. One incidence that shows that Okonkwo is a tragic hero is from the realization that he had been good all along until he showed the trait of fear after it was indispensable that Ikemefuna had to be slaughtered. All through, the reader gets that notion that the main character was only leaving a life that was expected to be the opposite of what his father lived. The inference is that despite succeeding, Okonkwo let himself down and shows that just as his father he also had a negative feature of being fearful. However, unlike in his father, his display of weakness is guided by the emotion he had for the adopted child and the connection that he had already established. It is stated that “Ikemefuna had begun to feel like a member of Okonkwo's family. He still thought about his mother and his three-year-old sister, and he had moments of sadness and depression. But he and Nwoye had become so deeply attached to each other that such moments became less frequent and less poignant (Achebe).” The inferences imply that just as his father, Okonkwo has tabled a good reputation that was destroyed though his act of showing anger that leads to the destruction of the reputation he had built for a long time. A further act of a demonstration of a weak character by a character who is established in a given set of play is from the fact that Okonkwo shoots a boy at the village out of bitterness. It is outlined that “He heard Ikemefuna cry, "My father, they have killed me!" as he ran towards him. Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak (Achebe).” This examples of a display of personality is a perfect case where the use of a character alone is enough to complete one’s mission. The people of Umuofia have a tradition where those who make grievous mistakes are expelled by the clan for a certain period of time to allow them to get rehabilitation. As a result, of his actions, he is delineated despite his non-linkage with wrongs. In spite of his intention being to act to show that he was not fearful, Okonkwo’s action made him to be turned away the same community that had cherished him all along. The inference for the theme is that despite being the victim of circumstance, Okonkowo was an outcast and was supposed to learn from his mistakes. Finally, it is also outlined that the Okonkwo’s a tragic hero when his so ends up to be influenced and gets converted into the new religion.
All along the play, it has been the dream of the main actor to stand out and not be put in the same bracket as that of his father. He felt that the only way to defend his father was by acting in ways that were opposite from those that his father used to practice. However, Okonkwo is let out by his son, who among all, that had been exposed the missionaries religion, gets swayed so easily. The implications that this had on the reputation he had at a personal level had been sacrificed by this child being converted. The justification for this thinking is based on the realization that his idea of having contrary to his father was a technique of making himself useful and not be thought of as a betrayal as his father. However, through his son’s disappointment, the theme of tragedy here on Okonkwo’s perspective stands valid.
In summation, the story is based on a foundation of happenings that continually seem to put the Okonkwo in trouble with the community. From the three mentioned incidences, it becomes evident that the novel Things Fall Apart is founded on the theme of a tragic hero who strives all along to get his desires met but is unsuccessful. Among the three happenings, the killing of his adopted son and Okonkwo’s later reaction culminates the theme of
tragedy.
In the end it is Okonkwo’s inability to recognize change that forces him to commit suicide. It is the white missionaries’ inability to recognize that the Africans did not wish to change which adds to his demise. The missionaries represent the ruthlessness of the white man in Africa. The native Africans were expected to accept the ways of the white culture, for their own benefit, or suffer the consequences. In this light the missionaries can only be seen as brutal, and anything but true Christians, but rather religious zealots who like Okonkwo wish to force their world view upon others.
In life people are very rarely, if ever, purely good or evil. In novels authors tend not to create characters with an obvious moral standing not only to make their novel more applicable to the reader, but also to make the characters more complex and dynamic. Chinua Achebe uses this technique to develop the characters in his novel, Things Fall Apart. The main character, and protagonist in the novel, Okonkwo, is very morally dynamic showing some sensitivity to his family and friends, but in an attempting to rebel against his father, Okonkwo also exhibits the tendency to lash out violently.
Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart, follows the tragic life of Okonkwo, a man who suffers a miserable fate due to the fear of failure that controls every action he makes. Though the fear of failure acts as motivation to become a successful and respected man at first, it later cripples Okonkwo in such a way that failure ultimately defines his life. Okonkwo is constantly afraid of being a victim of weakness and desperately tries to remain a strong and unyielding man. It is his overwhelming fear of weakness that causes things to fall apart in his life, as his attempts to avoid failure and weakness eventually lead to the ultimate defeat: his shameful suicide. Fear of failure and weakness dominates Okonkwo throughout his life.
Family is important in every culture, it shapes people and makes them who they are.
In Things Fall Apart, the reader follows the troubles of the main character Okonkwo, a tragic hero whose flaw includes the fact that "his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness" (2865). For Okonkwo, his father Unoka was the essence of failure and weakness.
Though many may interpret Okonkwo as a tragic hero are drawn to him, Obierika deserves more sympathy from the reader than Okonkwo. Obierika suffers just as Okonkwo does under the thumb of the missionaries, but he lacks the selfish focus that drives most of Okonkwo’s actions. Ultimately, Obierika’s venerability springs from his ability to see the compromise that will allow the Ibo to find a method for adaptation to the inevitable changes brought by the missionaries.
Things Fall Apart is an attention-grabbing novel full of violence, aggression, and oppression. Its main protagonist Okonkwo, on the surface appears to be a true tribesman, and a revered leader with qualities that far surpassed many among his clan. However, the physical and psychological qualities of Oknokwos’ character mirrored an individual who was nothing short of a “king like” ruler and conquer. Okonkwo traits of being a self-seeking, abusive, and cold-hearted individual made him a man that preys on the weak and young, and people in general who falls outside of his definition of a man. Okonkwo character lacks many characteristics that represent real strength, disciple, and bravery as his life came to a disappointing demise reflective of the weakness he spent his whole life avoiding. Okonkwo character in all fairness fails to stage some real virtues of a true leader, but rather that of a ruler.
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.
In accordance to defining a tragic hero, the protagonist is conflicted with opposing forces. In the novel, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the main character Okonkwo, is the depiction of a tragic hero. Okonkwo is a man who accomplished his success by hard work and the motivation to be stronger. In the beginnings, Okonkwo created his own farm by borrowing yam from the rich village man named Nwakibie. His strong willed and the dedication to never end up to be like his father, made Okonkwo strong and power. Okonkwo grew up from poverty to wealthy enough to support three wives, and many children. He was well respected by his clansman from his village. Although, Okonkwo has many great aspect in his life, his tragic flaw is the fear of becoming
The Importance of Things Fall Apart & nbsp; & nbsp; The novel "Things Fall Apart", by Chinua Achebe, was an eye-opening account of the life and eventual extinction of an African tribe called the Ibo. It focuses on one character, Okonkwo, who at a very early age set out on a quest of self-perfection. Coming from a family ruled by a man who was lazy and inconsistent with everything he did, Okonkwo vowed to never accept the fate of his father. Okonkwo and his family have suffered through many hard times in their lives, but usually managed to come out on top. Through terrible crop seasons and bad judgement calls, Okonkwo usually prevailed, until the day came when he was faced with a situation that could not be resolved by his strength and character alone.
All throughout history, we see this dichotomy between tradition and modernity. On one hand, we have tradition, the force living perpetually in the past and refusing to change. On the other hand, modernity leaves tradition behind in favor of progress. These two concepts, much like oil and water, dare to divide but coexist as a debatable founding solution. Not only are the themes Western ideas, but they have been present and are found in literature all around the world, from China to Africa.
What if a person’s relationship with his father determined if he lived or died, or if he would ever see his mother or siblings again? For the children of Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart it did. Things Fall Apart takes place in Nigeria in the early nineteenth century. The novel focuses on the life of Okonkwo, a man famous for winning a wrestling match against the greatest wrestler in all the local villages, when he was just eighteen years old. Okonkwo’s family consisted of his three wives and ten children, they lived in a village called Umuofia. Okonkwo didn’t have very good relationships with most of his children, and most people in general. Okonkwo had different relationships with all of his children because they were all individuals, their relationships with their father constructed all of their futures in diverse ways.
Throughout history, there have been many instances of people struggling to identify and cope with change and tradition, and this is no different in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.
Okonkwo takes his life as he sees himself a lone warrior in a society of weaklings. This isolation is truly imposed by his decision of how to handle the conflicts which he encounters. His unitary channeling of emotions, cultural inflexibility, and tendency to seek physical confrontation are compiled into a single notion. The idealized vision of a warrior by which Okonkwo lives is the instrument that leads to the climax of Achebe's novel, Things Fall Apart: Okonkwo's demise.