How Does Okonkwo's Change In Things Fall Apart

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Things fall apart: Okonkwo As the title entails, things truly do fall apart for these tribes. The character I will be describing is no other than Okonkwo. A tragic hero he was, his story was cut short due to these missionaries arriving on their soil and the events that lead up to his death. Okonkwo’s story was very strong and mighty, but it is shown to us that no man can forever stay mighty. I will be describing the changes to this character before and after western influences. One change in Okonkwo throughout this story was motivation. Okonkwo was the leader of umuofia, a very strong one. He led his men into wars and became a fearless leader among them. When these missionaries arrived things changed, Okonkwo knew they had to stand their ground …show more content…

Throughout the story we see Okonkwo as this big deal, a fearless man who “ doesn’t fear blood” but as the story trails on we see different. The beginning of this character change was of course Ikemefuna's death, he had to hide his emotions so that his men did not think he was weak, he went to his “obi” or hut and cried for Ikemefuna, he didn’t eat for days. The next character change was when he was cast out of his clan for accidentally killing someone’s son at a funeral, he was sent to his motherland to live with the kinsmen and he put nothing but hate and sorrow on his back and dwelled on what he did for a long time until Uchendu knocked sense into him. The final character change was when these missionaries came to umuofia, Okonkwo was expecting his warriors to fight off these strangers but as said above they were cowards to him. This made Okonkwo want to fight his own war as a one man army which further led to his death as a poetic way of saying he lost hope for his …show more content…

His father was a lazy and irresponsible man, a disgrace to the clan in his eyes. Another fear he had was becoming too feminine which led to his assist in the killing of ikemefuna. But his biggest fear of all which was hinted at during the missionary arc was his faith in his clan. He saw the potential of fighting these strangers off but his clan never did, they stood by and watched. Okonkwo was the most well respected man in all of umuofia but his men couldn't even fight for their leader and their home, evidence that they are scared and confused on the situation, his own men and even his son Nwoye started going to the white man's church and practicing their ways. There’s no denying that all of these factors coincided with Okonkwo

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