Okonkwo's Flaws In Things Fall Apart

In the novel Things Fall Apart, by Achebe Chinua, the brutal downhill of Okonkwo is well displayed through his thoughts and actions. It becomes clear to the reader, Okonkwo is not who he thinks he is, he is soft and loving. He wears a mask and brings pride upon himself through the false belief and actions of whom he wants to be. In his search for the ideal and his future, he finds who he truly is, and reality finds him hanging. He was the strongest man who used his strength to drown the confusions of his life away. Nwoye’s father was a fearful coward, who could not find reality until reality found him. Unlike the people of his village, Okonkwo did not fear others, but instead, he feared the future of himself. He identified strength through weakness, the weakness that was defined by what he saw in his father. Lucky for him, the people of Umuofia and the surrounding villages only saw his fearlessness and did not see what he actually harbored inside. Chapter two indicates “Okonkwo’s fear was greater than these… It was the fear of himself” (13).

His downfall begins with the death of Ikemefuna. When the village decides to have him killed, Okonkwo is advised not to follow, but in fear to be seen as weak, he does not comply. As soon as Ikemefuna is struck “Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak” (61). In the following, it shows he was heavily affected through his endless drinking and obvious depression, Okonkwo had lost control of his artificial “self” and had realized he was indeed sad and weak. His true self was behind the mask he had created, he had only been acting strong to impress others. By the end of the novel, Okonkwo realizes that he no longer has the same influence he had before; he was weak and he envisioned his father. Okonkwo was never “strong,” it was only an illusion to keep him away from the truth; he would be weak as his father