Things Fall Apart by Chinua Okonkwo

577 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The role of women in the novel things fall apart

In the book Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo comes across as a tough, proud leader of the Umuofia clan. He is well respected and many people look up to him. He has strong beliefs regarding his village and he prioritizes the laws and the well being of the clan ahead of his own feelings. His father had an impact on his life that changed his mind set to feeling that he constantly needs to prove himself and his courage. Once the village is taken over by the white men, he takes his own life because he cannot bear to see his people forced to go against what they believe. He knows that if he were to live, being forced to follow beliefs that he did not agree with, then that would go against all he stands for. Okonkwo’s noble decision to end his life shows his courage and bravery because he will not let anyone change him or bear to see his village fall apart. Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, is a lazy man who lacks the diligence that is needed to be a good father, husband and leader. As a child, Okonkwo was ashamed of his father. He knew that once he had a family of his own, he would do anything and everything in his power to stray from the bad example that his father had set. Unoka’s job is to provide for his family, but since he was unable to do so, his family had to face many struggles providing for themselves. Unoka abandoned his family when they needed him. He is a disgrace to them and a dishonor to the clan. Okonkwo faced struggles in his everyday live, when he needed to step up and take the responsibility that he father refused. Because he had experienced a live without a proper father, he promised himself that he would never get to that point and he would understand his obligations and do whatever he could to accomplish what was needed for his family and the Igbo people. *TRANSITION* Okonkwo struggles with changes and he refuses to assimilate to ideas he does not agree with. Okonkwo is known as the most honorable and strongest warrior in the tribe. As the British come and attempt to take over, other men, including Okonkwo’s own son, have to help stand up to them.

Show More
Related

  • Okonkwo A Sympathetic Character

    563 Words  | 2 Pages

    In these few chapters that we read, we have already learned a lot about Okonkwo, his life, and how he shows sympathy to some, but to others he is heartless. Okonkwo is other wise known as an unsympathetic person. Okonkwo is a clan leader of umuofia who holds many titles and is well known among his people. Okonkwo's daily life consists of tending to the three yam farms he has produced and to make numerous offerings to numerous gods and to help himself and his family. Okonkwo's personality is hard driven, since his father did not provide for him and his family Okonkwo had to start man hood early and this led him to be very successful in his adulthood, Okonkwo is an unsympathetic character who only shows sympathy rarely because he believes it's a sign of weakness Okonkwo's family relationships make him a sympathetic character because when his children show signs of manliness or do their jobs right he shows sympathy towards them. He is an unsympathetic character because whenever he get a little mad he has to take his anger out on something and that is usually vented by beating his wife's.

    Read More

  • 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

  • Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart – Finding Unoka in the Mirror

    1662 Words  | 4 Pages

    “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.

    Read More

  • Cultural Differences In Things Fall Apart By Chinua Achebe

    960 Words  | 2 Pages

    He was in great conflict with the ideas of the white men and the missionaries. Okonkwo saw that their beliefs had not only changed the daily life of the Ibo, but it also changed the people themselves: “He mourned for the warlike men of Umuofia, who had so unaccountably become soft like women” (Achebe 183). The author uses strong diction to compare the men before and after colonization. This quote also portrays Okonkwo’s opinion towards the cultural collision. He values strength and masculinity immensely because of his fear of appearing weak like his father Unoka. When he describes that the men of Umuofia changed to be soft like women, this shows how much he dishonors the Western ideas and how it has taken over the village. He made an attempt to get rid of the Western influence by urging the tribe to fight like men, but they refuse to. He was determined and still attempted to furthermore encourage the people of Umuofia to revolt against the new culture. He realizes that his attempts to return the village back to the way it was before were futile. He knew that Christianity was tearing his people apart, but knew he was incapable of making change to help his people. Okonkwo then starts to feel hopeless and abandoned by his clan, which causes him to commit suicide by hanging himself: “Obierika… turned suddenly to the District Commissioner and said ferociously: ‘That man was one of the greatest men

    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

  • Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

    975 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    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

  • Nigerian Culture In Things Fall Apart By Chinua Achebe

    1540 Words  | 4 Pages

    As you see, Okonkwo was a deprived man after hearing about the whites expanding their beliefs and customs to Umuofia. Being unable to contain it, he had no choice but to give in. Okonkwo wanted to go to war and fight the invading Europeans, but he soon realized that he was the only one hungry for war. “I shall fight alone if I choose” (Achebe 201). Being the only one seeking for revenge, he had no choice but to behead the head messenger who was trying to end a clan meeting. Letting the other messengers escape, Okonkwo’s visual was the truth. “He knew that Umuofia would not go to war” (Achebe 205). Everything that he stood for was now distant. His once powerful and running clan was now weak and resistant to fight off enemies. What was the point to live when everything else had failed him and he could do nothing to resolve it? He struggled with the changes occurring in the tribe. He was known as a very strong and honorable tribesman, but when the whites arrived promoting Christianity and other tribe members began to change as a result, even his own son, he could not bear the change. While viewing the others as weak, like his father, he tries to remain strong against change however he is the only one. Killing the messenger was the last attempt to try and save the tribe from the influence of the white man. Seeing the others not join in his action, he loses hope and in desperation ends 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's Self-Destructive Masculinity in Things Fall Apart

    2752 Words  | 6 Pages

    Okonkwo is known throughout Umuofia to be extremely masculine. He rarely shows signs of fear or weakness. This is because Oknokwo promised himself he would be the complete opposite of his father Unoka. Unoka had passed away ten years prior to when the story takes place but he has always been remembered as a weak, lazy, poor man who could barely provide for his family. He was always in debt and didn't care to work, he would play his flute all day everyday if he was able to. "People laughed at him because he was a loafer, and they swore never to lend him any more money because he never paid back" (5). Unoka was the laugh of the town and Okonkwo would never allow himself be that.

    Read More

  • Things Fall Apart Adapt To Change Essay

    622 Words  | 2 Pages

    Since his childhood, Okonkwo has always been ashamed of his father, Unoka. Unoka was rarely able to feed his children, which made Okonkwo scared and embarrassed. When he went out into Umuofia, he found that the villagers had very similar opinions towards his father. As...

    Read More

  • Things Fall Apart Book Report- 11 Pages Long. I Got An A

    2728 Words  | 6 Pages

    Unoka – Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, was considered lazy and a failure. He never worked and always took from others. Okonkwo considered him a complete embarrassment and vowed never to be like his father. He had to hate what Unoka once loved, and never borrow money or stop working.

    Read More

  • Character Analysis Of Okonkwo

    1034 Words  | 3 Pages

    Okonkwo grew up from poverty to wealthy enough to support three wives, and many children. He was well respected by his clansmen from his village. Although, Okonkwo has many great aspects in his life, his tragic flaw is the fear of becoming like his father. While everyone was working on their farm, Unoka did nothing but drink, dance, and just plainly pray to the gods.

    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

More about Things Fall Apart by Chinua Okonkwo

Open Document