Things Fall Apart Essay

From the poem “The second coming” by Yeats, which Chinua Achebe quoted at the end of the novel “Things Fall Apart”, the poet suggested that the coming of Jesus would never be the arrival of an era of peace and holy land but the era of chaos and destruction of the world. This is true in Achebe’s novel, for the arrival of the white had not only brought their religion but also colony therefore subsequently led to the collapse of the ancient African society. By focusing on Okonkwo’s life and death, Achebe presented the imagines of the African culture and how they had fallen apart. The reason why things fell apart, though not mentioned by the author in the novel, was caused by series of conflict between Okonkwo’s belief and what he had gone through

However, great as he was, “his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness… It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father.” (P. 13) Driven by such belief, Oknokwo was determined to become the strongest man in this land. He regarded any negative emotion such as grief and despair as weak of which he tried so hard in his life to avoid. But such emotion is such a humanity that none could avoid. When Oknokwo killed the boy Ikemefuna, he found himself falling into great depression. “He did not sleep at night. He tried not to think about Ikemefuna, but the more he tried the more he thought about him.” (P.

But when Oknokwo’s was exiled from Umuofia, he doubted that “The saying of the elders was not true-that if a man said yes his chi also affirmed. Here was a man whose chi said nay despite his own affirmation.” (P.131) Such doubt can be inferred earlier in the novel when the oracle took Oknokwo’s daughter Ezinma in a dark night, he followed them until making sure that Ezinma was safe. Such behavior though was out of love to his daughter, also had reflected his mistrust to the religion. The exile had aggravated such mistrust, for the first time in his life, Oknokwo began to think about whether his chi really exist, and if it exist, “Why should a man suffer so grievously for an offense he had committed inadvertently?” (P.125) If chi had failed him this time, what about the previous movement he had done under the instruction of the god? Was it right or wrong? Or maybe it’s another trick made by the god. “He remembered his wife’s twin children, whom he had thrown away. What crime had they commited?” (P.