More handpicked essays just for you.
Okonkwo's fate in things falling apart
Identify the tragic elements in things falling apart
Okonkwo's fate in things falling apart
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Okonkwo's fate in things falling apart
Okonkwos’ Tragic Life Okonkwo, in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, was faced with many hardships in his life. When growing up he had to deal with a lazy father, then when he was older he had to kill a boy that called him father, and he also accidentally killed a young boy from his village. These events played a very tragic role in Okonkwos life. Okonkwo’s father Unoka “was lazy and improvident was quite incapable of thinking about tomorrow.” Unoka owed everybody money and whenever he had money he would spend it on palm- wine. “He was poor and his wife and children had barely enough to eat.” Okonkwo was very ashamed of his father when he died because he not taken any titles and he was heavily in dept. Okonkwo did not want to be like his father so he worked very hard and at a young age he was a wealthy farmer and had two barns full of yams, and he had married his third wife. Not only that but he had two titles. This was a very tough task but Okonkwo managed to do it and the villages looked up to him. Another tragic event that Okonkwo had to go through in his life was when he became attached to a boy that he had taken in when Udo’s wife was murdered. The boy was given to Okonkwo and a virgin was given to Udo from the tribe that killed Udo’s wife so they wouldn’t have to go to war. After three years the boy, whose name is Ikemefuna, still missed his family but was beginning to feel at home. The boy even thought of O...
“With a father like Unoka, Okonkwo did not have the start in life which many young men had. He neither inherited a barn nor a title, or even a young wife. But in spite of these disadvantages, he had begun even in his father’s lifetime to lay the foundations of a prosperous future” (18). Most of his accomplishments were despite his father, whom Okonkwo loathed, but with whom I connected. In the novel, I relate more to Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, a much more laid back character. Like Unoka, I am in love with life, lazy, not worried about tomorrow, and deeply in debt.
Okonkwo is “a man of action, a man of war” (7) and a member of high status in the Igbo village. He holds the prominent position of village clansman due to the fact that he had “shown incredible prowess in two intertribal wars” (5). Okonkwo’s hard work had made him a “wealthy farmer” (5) and a recognized individual amongst the nine villages of Umuofia and beyond. Okonkwo’s tragic flaw isn’t that he was afraid of work, but rather his fear of weakness and failure which stems from his father’s, Unoka, unproductive life and disgraceful death. “Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and weakness….It was not external but lay deep within himself. It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father.” Okonkwo’s father was a lazy, carefree man whom had a reputation of being “poor and his wife and children had just barely enough to eat... they swore never to lend him any more money because he never paid back.” (5) Unoka had never taught Okonkwo what was right and wrong, and as a result Okonkwo had to interpret how to be a “good man”. Okonkwo’s self-interpretation leads him to conclude that a “good man” was someone who was the exact opposite of his father and therefore anything that his father did was weak and unnecessary.
A tragedy has a protagonist, the protagonist is someone who is renowned or prosperous, and has a change of fortune from good to bad or vice versa. The driving force or protagonist in Things Fall Apart is undoubtedly Okonkwo. Okonkwo was a prominent clansman of Umuofia. He had three wives and eight children. Okonkwo had many changes of fortune during Things Fall Apart. He got his start by sharecropping for Nwakibie. Sharecropping is a system of agriculture in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crop produced on the land. From there he acquired his own farm. When he thought he could never fall, Okonkwo had a cruel twist in fate. His gun exploded and killed Ezeudu’s son. Okonkwo was then banished for seven years, and from there everything started to fall apart.
Okonkwo wanted to become one of the greatest men in the Ibo tribe, but three unfortunate events occur bringing him closer to his end. Okonkwo was a proud, industrious figure who through hard work was able to elevate himself to a stature of respect and prominence in his community. The one major character flaw was that he was a man driven by his fear to extreme reactions. Okonkwo was petrified of inadequacy namely because his father was a complete and utter failure. This fear of shortcoming made him hate everything his father loved and represented: weakness, gentleness, and idleness. Who was Okonkwo, well Okonkwo was a hero and also he...
What is a tragic hero? Who is a tragic hero? In literature, the tragic hero archetype has four requirements. A tragic hero must have high status, a tragic flaw, a punishment for this flaw, and reach wisdom in the end. In the novel Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, the main character Okonkwo is not a tragic hero. Okonkwo is not a tragic hero because although he started with high status, had a fatal flaw, and he suffered greatly because of this flaw, he never reached wisdom about this flaw.
Okonkwo was respected, greatly acknowledged, he was a wealthy farmer, he had 3 wives and many children. His oldest son, Nwoye was sadly different and not on the same track as Okonkwo, scaring him that he might own a son whose mentality is alike to Unoka. “Nwoye, was then twelve years old but was already causing his father great anxiety for his incipient laziness. At any rate, that was how it looked to his father, and he sought to correct him by constant nagging and beating. And so Nwoye was developing into a sad-faced youth” (Achebe 13). Okonkwo desperately attempted to not have any of Unoka in his son and create a better man instead. Not only did Okonkwo severe and sharp behavior further him from his son but when the chance for Nwoye to escape came, he took
Okonkwo is the son of a man named Unoka, who was known as somewhat of a failure and was not able to repay debt. Unoka preferred music and friendly gatherings to working in the field and was therefore more focused on things as seen as unimportant to the Ibo culture such as playing his flute and drinking palm-wine rather than earning titles and growing yams as an Ibo man should. Okonkwo developed a deep shame and hatred for his father and worked tirelessly to erase him from his memory by attempting to become his opposite by earning
When Okonkwo’s cousin Amikwu witnessed Nwoye at the Christian church, Okonkwo was enraged. Once Nwoye returned him Okonkwo grab his neck and began to choke him, demanding to know where he was. After he was finished beating his son, Nwoye decided to leave and never return. He confided in a missionary Mr. Kiaga telling him that he has not decided to return to Umuofia and attend the Christian school to learn to read and write. Okonkwo looked at his son as woman like, who resembled his grandfather greatly.
From an early age, Okonkwo was ashamed of his father, Unoka, who was unable even to feed his family. The unpredictability of receiving enough food at a young age was enough to inspire fear and embarrassment in Okonkwo who associated this embarrassment with his father and was given further justification for these feelings when he went out into Umuofia, discovering that the other villagers held similar opinions of Unoka. When he was old enough, Okonkwo began farming his own yams because “he had to support his mother and two sisters […] And supporting his mother also meant supporting his father” (25). Okonkwo’s self-reliance was admired, valued in the community where “age was respected […] but achievement was revered” (12); this admiration gave him feelings of security, and the respect of his peers pushed him towards greater self-respect, distancing him from his father. The security and respect became related in his mind as he viewed his acceptance in the community as his life’s goal and Okonk...
Growing up a poor boy in a poor country is hard. When you dad’s the village fool, it makes it even worse; your sense of worth is low, and you must fight every day to rectify the mistakes of your father and prove your own worth basically reestablishing your name as one of truth and goodness. You must work twice as hard for half the reward as Okonkwo does to establish himself as a different person than his father. Making the choice to be a different man; he made good business decisions, worked tirelessly and raised his children with a strict set of rules he never had. Motivated purely by the ceaseless though of being better than his father, or at least being perceived as better. Being so focused and narrow-minded you can lose sight of the importance of your family and their wellbeing, leading to everything falling apart.
Okonkwo, is a man who never shows weakened. He resents his fathers failure and weakness, and he sill remembers how he suffered when he was told his father was a agbala. Which basically means woman, or a man who had taken no title. Ever since then he fears being like his father which led him to be cold hearted in a way. He expected and wanted his wives and his children
In order to maintain his pride, Okonkwo commits actions that negatively impact his life. One being the murder of his adopted son, Ikemefuna. Tensions between Umuofia and a neighboring village arise due to a complication resulting in the death of a clan member. As a result, the members of the Umuofia clan demand two youths be sent from th neighboring village as payment for the death. Once they arrive, Okonkwo agrees to
In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo is an influential leader in his tribe. Okonkwo is driven by his fear of becoming weak and unmanly, much like father. He achieves social and financial success by being motivated by these ideals. Achebe's, Things Fall Apart takes place in Nigeria in the late 19th century. Achebe suggests that fear is devastating to one’s well being.
Okonkwo is a self-made man. He achieves greatness through his own hard work and determination. Okonkwo started his life without the benefits that other young men had. His father, Unoka, was a lazy man. He had acquired no honorary titles. When Unoka died, Okonkwo did not inherit any barn, title, or young wife. He merely acquired his father’s debts. Therefore, Okonkwo sets about to make a name for himself and to achieve greatness in his community. He diligently plants and harvests his yams, building a farm from scratch. He builds a large commune for his family. He marries three wives; one of them was the village beauty. He acquires two titles. Okonkwo is not a failure, like is father was. In Umuofia, “achievement was revered”, and Okonkwo’s achievement was immense (8). He was “clearly cut out for great things” (8). To the Igbo people, Okonkwo epitomizes greatness and success.
Chinua Achebe's novel, Things Fall Apart, uses the changes in African tribal culture brought about by European colonization to illustrate the evolution of the character Okonkwo. As Okonkwo leads his life, his experiences, personality and thought are revealed to the reader. The obstacles he faces in life are made numerous as time progresses. Okonkwo's most significant challenge originates within himself. He also encounters problems not only when in opposition to the white culture, but in his own culture, as he becomes frustrated with tribal ideals that conflict with his own. The last adversary he encounters is of the physical world, brought upon himself by his emotional and cultural problems. The manner through which Okonkwo addresses his adversaries in Things Fall Apart creates the mechanism that leads to his eventual destruction.