Okonkwo's Decisions In Things Fall Apart

The novel Things Fall Apart written by Chinua Achebe tells the tale of an Umuofia warrior Okonkwo, a member of a lower Nigerian tribe. Okonkwo is a loyal member of the tribe, but some clans people perceive Okonkwo as a blood thirsty hothead. The death of the village elder’s son results in Okonkwo and his family’s exile for seven years. During his exile a young boy who is living with Okonkwo and his family goes on his own mission to find his mother where some of Okonkwo’s fellow clansmen attack the boy. Not wanting to look weak in front of his peers Okonkwo kills the boy. Soon after missionaries travel to Umuofia led by Mr. Brown. The clans struggle to accept the religion of the missionaries resulting in the burning of a church and the people

The Umuofia people are a spiritual set of people that follow strict guidelines when dealing with punishable offences. The village clans people think of Okonkwo as one of the most imperial members of the tribe, but with his track record one can wonder. In his critical analysis Donald Wehrs explains that, “while Okonkwo may not have directly challenged his chi, his constant fighting against going in directions that his spirit would lead him--toward loving interdependence with his family, toward refusing to participate in Ikemefuna's murder, toward acknowledging his affection for Ezinma and Ekwefi, toward thinking through the intuitions implicit in his admiration of Obierika is of a piece with his general impatience with hearing out the words of others” (Wehrs 1). The love he illustrates for his people does not cease Okonkwo from severely beating his youngest wife for negligence. It does not justify killing a messenger of the missionaries in cold blood to possibly send a message to them. Today, this course of action identifies as barbaric, and inhumane even for the 1870s. “Okonkwo’s machete descended twice and the man’s head la beside his uniformed body” (Achebe 151) in doing a deed in his mind for the betterment of his people. Moral obligation does not always mean the right decision. With his demise forthcoming, immediately after his actions, the burning question remains is the

Korang says, “thus no civilization can either remain static or evolve forever towards a more inclusive perfection. It must both collapse from within and be overwhelmed from without, and what replaces it will appear most opposite to itself, being from all that if overlooked or undervalued” (Korang 1). With the arrival of the Christians and their progressive technology to Umuofia, most the clans’ people began deserting traditional values and reforming to the more enticing opportunity. Due to the lack of local expansion, along with a limit of natural resources foreign colonialism becomes more of a reality. “For (old) Umuofia, historical fatality that dissipates cultural common sense, inevitably arresting social development in one direction and diverting its path to another” (Korang 1). With how naturalistic human behavior is set up Korang suggests that instead of fighting the reality that is approaching, revolutionize what is already set in stone. Because the more knowledgeable of old tradition clans people, including Okonkwo, are so prideful it is impractical to think that they can subdue to such harsh changes. The same thing happens worldwide year after year where adolescent generations are more willing to expand their minds and question tradition and beliefs that are the platform for their very nature. “[Okonkwo’s son] Nwoye has had intuitions about