Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

1111 Words3 Pages

The struggle between custom values and conversion is a universally applied theme to Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. The fable like, tragic tone of the work was set off from the very first page. The verb FALL APART has 4 senses to lose one's emotional or mental composure, go to pieces, break or fall apart into fragments, and to become separated into pieces or fragments. These are all exemplified in the novel Things Fall Apart. Okonkwo is a tragic hero in the traditional sense. His fate was decided for him and was unavoidable. Okonkwo’s inability to act rationally and express his feelings in a anthropological manner leads to his inescapable demise. Okonkwo exhibits the characteristics of a tragic hero not only by encompassing an unexceptional flaw. Okonkwo not only developed this flaw because of his erroneous equivalence of masculinity with being filled with relentless fury, vehemence, and impetuousness, but also because he leads to his own self-annihilation. Fury is defined by a violent anger and uncontrolled rage. The excerpt used by Achebe as the epigraph to the novel “Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,” can be applied to Okonkwo himself. He is so blinded and deafened by his past memories and wanting to oppose them that mere anarchy is released in his life and upon his family. Okonkwo’s in fervent inner battles to be as dissimilar from his deceased father as possible bring him great status but could not assure his happiness. He still did not get all he ever wanted in life. Okonkwo felt great disappointment because his son Nwoye wasn’t into the masculine behaviors exhibited from him. ... ... middle of paper ... ...ociety so weakens and depresses Okonkwo that he takes his own life by hanging. Hanging is looked to as a very disgraceful death in today’s society and ancient societies. Okonkwo crumbled under the newly developed society of the white man in Umofia. He could no longer act on his fury, vehemence or impetuousness, because acting in those non-compliant ways got him no further advancement and was frowned upon. Okonkwo lost his mental composure and everything in his life went to pieces because of it. His lack of sensitivity and understanding of those different from him handicapped his entire life. Okonkwo’s strength was further proven to have many fallacies because he was not strong in the important aspects of having composure and not acting on impulse. He could no longer control the people around him, nor his own life so he became misfortune of a classic tragedy.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
1373 Words | 3 Pages
Akunna on one of Mr. Brown's visits. " We also believe in Him and call
Read More
Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe
1351 Words | 3 Pages
In the novel, Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, women play the roles of oppressed homemakers that are perceived as weak and defenseless second-class citizens, as the educators of children, and as spiritual leaders in traditional Ibo culture. Through the life of Okonwo, the main character of Things Fall Apart, the roles of women in traditional Ibo culture are presented through various events that take place in the village of Umuofia. In traditional Ibo culture, women were to stay at home and tend to her husbands’ needs and satisfy them. Women were viewed as property of their fathers and were then sold to the suitor that was willing to pay her bride-price. A woman had no identity of her own, the status and position of her husband defined her. Women were considered inferior to men and were not to challenge or question their authority. When Nwoye’s mother or Okonwo’s senior wife questioned how long was Ikemefuna to stay with them, Okonwo was stunned at her questioning him and furiously responded, “ Do what you are told, woman ,” When did you become one of the ndichie of Umuofia?”(14). And so Nwoye’s mother took Ikemefuna to her hut and asked no more questions. In observance with the Ibo view of female nature, the clan allowed wife beating. The novel describes two instances when Okonwo beats his wives. The first instance is when Okonwo beats his wife, Ojiugo for not coming home to prepare his meal. He beat her severely and was punished but only because he beat her during The Week of Peace. Any other time people would not have come over to see why a woman was screaming, but this was during the Week of Peace, and to beat someone during The Week of Peace was unheard of. The second instance is when he beats his second wife, Ekwefi for ...
Read More
Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe
1491 Words | 3 Pages
...their toll. Okonkwo ignores his emotions various times throughout the novel just so that others would not see him as weak or lesser than what Okonkwo wants to be seen as, powerful, perseverant, elite, and ultimately successful. Furthermore, Okonkwo fails to listen to the reason behind the decisions made by his community and in turn reacts irrationally and irresponsibly to the situation. Overall, Okonkwo’s fear of failing suppresses his potential to enjoy life, rather than living life just to make others think highly of him. Okonkwo’s inability to subdue his lifelong fear of failure limits him to react irrationally to situations without processing what is happening with reason, and ultimately the mistakes Okonkwo makes throughout his life add up and lead to his conclusive demise, suicide.
Read More
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
865 Words | 2 Pages
... his words that he committed a great evil; we live in peace with our fellows to honor our great goddess of the earth without whose blessings our crops will not grow. You have committed a great evil (Achebe 30). Okonkwo displays another fit of anger during the feast of the new yam, when he almost killed his second wife with a gun because she cut a few leaves off the banana tree to wrap some food. Without patience to discern her explanation; she was beaten mercilessly and almost got killed. Okonkwo lacked a sense of affection towards his family, which can be linked to his fear of weakness. He repudiates any show of emotion or patience in order not to appear weak. His household lived in a perpetual fear, he never gave them the opportunity to get close to him without been scared of him, and this really had a great effect with the relationship he had with his household.
Read More
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
603 Words | 2 Pages
In Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart, the Ibo culture revolves around structured gender roles, from the crops that the men and women grow, to the characterization of crimes,which creates tension between the sexes and will ultimately lead to detrimental consequences. Things Fall Apart represents the hardships and struggles between females and males. For example, Ekwefi, the wife of Okonkwo, she is often beat for the things she has genuinely forgotten about . Also, we have Enzima, Okonkwo's favorite daughter, but since she is a female, she must be treated like a women. Although females are considered the weaker gender, they possess many qualities that make them worthy, such as bearing children. Achebe explained the importance of both genders and how they contribute to the society.
Read More
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
1165 Words | 3 Pages
Things Fall Apart, a novel based on the cultures and the traditions of the Igbos depict a very strong sense of struggle between change and tradition. This story is somewhat an archetype of To Kill a Mocking Bird. Not just centered on sociopolitical views but also cultural and traditional beliefs, Achebe specifically defines each speck of this Eastern Nigerian culture, from the breaking of the “kola –a caffeine-containing nut of evergreen trees to the unmasking of the egwuegwu and spiritual sacrifices to the gods and ancestors. Kola, a very essential part of the Igbo culture is represented in so many ways; it signifies peace, blessing, wealth, abundance, and respect most especially. In this society, the contest for wealth, titles and success was very important, it was a great legacy to be left by any man. Okonkwo being the strongest and most powerful man in the village had more than set a standard in that village by conquering the greatest warrior of all time. He had a symbiotic relationship with his community, as much has he benefited from the community’s societal and cultural values, so did they benefit from his strength and will power to succeed.
Read More
Cultural Collisions In Things Fall Apart By Chinua Achebe
747 Words | 2 Pages
You never know how much you care about your culture until people try to take it away from you. Okonkwo was a prideful jerk as moste would describe him, who was once exiled for seven years for his unlawful actions. When he finally returned to Umuofia, white men come trying to change things and take land. Okonkwo stepped up to help lead his clan but ended up with the same mistakes he used to make, which connects to violence. He then gives in to his biggest fear, weakness. When stress and trying to step up and change to somebody your not takes toll over you, sometimes one just can’t over turn it. This was his reaction to the cultural collision of the white men and Igbo people. This is important because that cultural collision impacted many people on both sides of the dispute. Okonkwo’s reaction to this collision showed how one can connect back to old habits and how cultural collisions mostly never end well no matter what. There will always be that person offended, killed, or even that person to take their own life because of
Read More
Irony in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart
1503 Words | 4 Pages
The above passages were taken from the end of chapter three, part one. After finishing reading this book and then going back through it, I found these passages very ironic in regards to how the story eventually ended. Okonkwo believed that because he was such a fierce fighter, he could conquer anything life threw at him. However, it was his fierce, proud, fighting attitude that was his demise in the face of uncontrollable circumstances in the end. Okonkwo believed that war and brute fighting would fix everything. He was a proud and stubborn man constantly struggling to improve his standing in the tribal community. Okonkwo also had intense pride for his tribe and way of life. He believed it was the right way of life and not to be questioned. Everyone was supposed to fear war with Umofia due to their fierce warriors and greatness in battle. When the white men not only did not fear them, but openly threatened the tribal way of life, Okonkwo prepared to handle the situation the only way he knew how. He wanted to got to war against the new white invaders, chasing them from tribal lands and ending the threat of different ways of life.
Read More
Things Fall Apart
1974 Words | 4 Pages
Okonkwo is often described as being similar to characters in Greek tragedies. Okonkwo knew that the end of his clan was coming, and that they would do nothing to prevent it from happening. He took his life out of desperation. He had struggled his whole life to become a respected member of his community, and suddenly his world is turned upside down and changed forever because of an accident. Okonkwo sees that he is fighting a losing battle, so he quits. Suicide was one of the biggest offenses that could be committed against the earth, and Okonkwo?s own clansmen could not bury him. Okonkwo?s death symbolizes the end of patriarchy in Umuofia. The last page of the book is from the point of view of the white Commissioner, who notes that he wants to include a paragraph on Okonkwo?s life in his book entitled The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of Lower Niger. Okonkwo?s struggles, triumphs and defeats are all reduced to a paragraph, much like his culture and society will be reduced.
Read More
Things Fall Apart Okonkwo Analysis
733 Words | 2 Pages
Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart, follows the tragic life of Okonkwo, a man who suffers a miserable fate due to the fear of failure that controls every action he makes. Though the fear of failure acts as motivation to become a successful and respected man at first, it later cripples Okonkwo in such a way that failure ultimately defines his life. Okonkwo is constantly afraid of being a victim of weakness and desperately tries to remain a strong and unyielding man. It is his overwhelming fear of weakness that causes things to fall apart in his life, as his attempts to avoid failure and weakness eventually lead to the ultimate defeat: his shameful suicide. Fear of failure and weakness dominates Okonkwo throughout his life.
Read More
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
966 Words | 2 Pages
In the book, Things Fall Apart, there are a couple of folktales that are extended throughout the book. These folktales contributes to and comments on the central narrative of the story. Animals and folktales were important to the Igbo people. They used animals in fables and stories to demonstrate their beliefs and rituals. With all rituals, animals and symbols play a crucial role in Igbo society. The fable of the Tortoise and the Birds has uncanny similarities with Okonkwo and his rise and fall. The tortoise’s strength and cunningness eventually gets to be too much, which ends up crushing him. And Okonkwo’s inability to adapt to change leads to his demise. Both the tortoise and Okonkwo’s seek to be strong in society and they both want to be known as important. That is why I believe that the fable, The Tortoise and the Birds, is the closest fable to the central narrative of the story.
Read More
Okonkwo Character Analysis Essay
1235 Words | 3 Pages
Things Fall Apart is an attention-grabbing novel full of violence, aggression, and oppression. Its main protagonist Okonkwo, on the surface appears to be a true tribesman, and a revered leader with qualities that far surpassed many among his clan. However, the physical and psychological qualities of Oknokwos’ character mirrored an individual who was nothing short of a “king like” ruler and conqueror. Okonkwo traits of being a self-seeking, abusive, and cold-hearted individual made him a man that preys on the weak and young, and people in general who falls outside of his definition of a man. Okonkwo character lacks many characteristics that represent real strength, discipleship, and bravery as his life came to a disappointing demise reflective of the weakness he spent his whole life avoiding.
Read More
Okonkwo’s Resistance to Change in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart
1470 Words | 3 Pages
The character of Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart was driven by fear, a fear of change and losing his self-worth. He needed the village of Umuofia, his home, to remain untouched by time and progress because its system and structure were the measures by which he assigned worth and meaning in his own life. Okonkwo required this external order because of his childhood and a strained relationship with his father, which was also the root of his fears and subsequent drive for success. When the structure of Umuofia changed, as happens in society, Okonkwo was unable to adapt his methods of self-evaluation and ways of functioning in the world; the life he was determined to live could not survive a new environment and collapsed around him.
Read More
People Fall Apart in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
1669 Words | 4 Pages
His society was complacent to change, content to surrender its traditions to a different culture. In killing the messenger at the end of the novel, Okonkwo was looking to save the culture that had fallen apart long before that moment. And like his culture before him, he fell apart when no one else resisted. Whether or not he had hanged himself, under British rule, he would still have been dead. Works Cited Achebe, Chinua.
Read More
Essay on the Downfall of Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart
816 Words | 2 Pages
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.
Read More

Open Document

Wait a second!

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe