Things Fall Apart

Cause and effect plays a huge part in many of all our lives. Either bringing us good to our life or bringing us misery and sadness. It also plays a huge part in the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. The main character, Okonkwo faces many challenges on his journey throughout his life some that were even out of his control. These events literally make his life fall apart, and eventually brought him to his death. Which had to end the way it did, at the time it did.

When Okonkwo's life goes downhill, it literally fell apart. Hence the title of the novel, Things Fall Apart. The first event in his life that represented his life falling apart was when his ‘adopted’ son was killed. This event had brought much misery to Okonkwo. Another example of his life falling apart was when he was exiled for seven years, and this resulted in him losing all he had. Lastly, another significant event was when his son, Nwoye, had converted to christianity. After this happened it showed Okonkwo that no more good would ever come to him. These events all show the downfall of Okonkwo’s life and how it is in relation with the title. His life fell apart just as easy as things fall apart.

Many of the events that led to his downfall were out of Okonkwo’s control.

One of these events includes when his son was killed. Okonkwo could not stop this, and this situation brought him a large amount of misery. It had also made him reflect how his family lost belief in him, and how he had lost the same faith in his father. His other son had converted to christianity, Okonkwo couldn’t stop this either because this situation had been out of his control. These events are similar to the ones in the book Enders Game by Orson Scott Card, there were situations in this story as well as in Things Fall Apart that were not in the protagonist’s control that had influenced their journeys in life. Many of the events in the story had influenced Okonkwo through his journey, and had influenced him all the way to his

death.
In the end his life had literally fallen apart. He lost all he had, all his friends, his sons, and his families faith. Okonkwo had nothing good in his life left, and it would just keep getting worse because the white men would have kept changing more and more of his tribe to christians. So Okonkwo killed himself for he had nothing left to live for. His suicide is an act of defiance and humiliation at the same time. Him killing himself was a humiliating reaction because it shows how he handled the situation in the way a woman would’ve, and how he gave up easily. Just like his father would have, it was also defiant towards the white men because it showed them that he would never become christian. This is why the story had to end the way it did.
Okonkwo started off with a wonderful life, friends, and riches. Sadly, once one bad event happened many more bad events happened. Like the domino effect, his life slowly fell apart. It all started with the death of his adopted son, his other son had converted to christianity, and Okonkwo was exiled for seven years and once he returned he had lost all he had. Thus bringing him to his humiliating yet defiant suicide.