The Lost of an African Hero A hero who has gained much respect from his clan members and has achieved many awards, but will soon lose it all. In the story Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe the main character Okonkwo shows many qualities of being a hero to his village and to the whole Igbo culture such as, becoming a successful farmer of jamons, becoming the best wrestler in the all the tribes, earning many high titles in the clan, and having many wives and kids. Later in the book many Europeans start coming to colonize the Igbo colonies and they gave the Igbo people a new cultural view rather than just Igbo views by offering them a new Religion, laws, and many new buildings like hospitals and schools. Okonkwo does not approve of what the new …show more content…
Europeans people are doing and does not want to lose his religion, but many Igbo people are converting to the European ways and Okonkwo feels that he is losing everything he knows and loves. Okonkwo’s culture beliefs lead to his death because of the Igbo people change in the religion,lost in family, and didn’t want to look weak by the Europeans. The reason why Okonkwo decided to kill himself was, because the Igbo people were converting to the European religion.
Sometime when you have change in your life it maybe hard to transition to that new idea. In the story Okonkwo has a very hard time dealing with this change that the European people have brought, because he is still using his old ways of religion and view on things. “ Does the white man understand our customs about land? How can he when he does not even speak our tongue? But he says are customs are bad; and our own brothers who have taken up this religion also say that are customs are bad… The white man are very clever… He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart”(176). This tells us some of the Igbo peoples views of the Europeans and how they feel about what they are doing. Okonkwo is losing his brothers( village members) to the European religion and the rest of the Igbo culture is gettig erased by this new culture. Okonkwo can’t do anything to stop the brothers of his village from converting religions because if Okonkwo wanted to start a war he would be battling against his own brothers in his tribe, which is a way to upset the Igbo gods. From what the European people have done they have put a knife into Igbo culture and made Igbo culture fall apart. “ Okonkwo stood looking at the dead man. He knew that umuofia would not go to war. He knew because they had let the other messenger escape. They had broken into tumult instead …show more content…
of action”(205). Okonkwo killed the messenger as a way to start war with the Europeans, once Okonkwo sees the dead messenger and nobody taking action to be apart of the uprise against the Europeans that is when he knew that he had lost his brothers, family, religion, everything he believed, and his life. Okonkwo knew at that point there was not going to be a war to stop the Europeans and Igbo culture was lost forever and would never came back. The Europeans took a lot more from Okonkwo then just Igbo religion, it also took Okonkwo’s family. The Europeans took family away from Okonkwo, which lead him to his final choice. In the Igbo culture everyone in the village is like a big family and once the Europeans came they started taking parts away from this village family, the Europeans took so much of this village family it felt like Okonkwo was the only one left in the family. “ He remembers his wife’s twin children, whom he had thrown away. What a crime had they committed? The Earth had decreed that they were an offense on the land and must be destroyed”(125). Many people who had twins they would have to throw them away by putting them in a box and putting them in the evil forest, since they were considered evil in the Igbo culture. This is one reason why the people of Igbo converted to European religion is so they would not need to lose parts of their families because Igbo gods said to do so or because they’re bad luck. Many people at the time did want to make the Igbo gods mad and get punished so had to follow the oracle, but now since they have the option of going to a religion we’re you get to keep your babies if they’re twins many converted to European ways making Okonkwo lose much of his village family. “ I am one of them, replied Nwoye. How is your father? Obierika asked. I don’t know. He is not my father, said Nwoye, unhappily”(143-144). This tells us that Nwoye is now part of the European religion. This clearly does not go well when Nwoye tells his father because when obierika asked “how is your father.” Nwoye told her that “he is not my father.” Showing that he is unpleased with his father because he wanted to be apart of the new religion and Okonkwo did not approve of it. The European culture is taking more than just village brothers from Okonkwo, it took his only son Nwoye. Okonkwo acts like he is not afraid of losing all his family, friends, and religion to the Europeans, but he does fear losing all that, he just doesn’t show it cause he doesn’t want to look weak. One of the biggest reason why Okonkwo decided to kill himself because he was afraid to look weak.
Okonkwo always had a fear to not act lazy and weak like how his father acted. This fear to look lazy and weak made Okonkwo act the way he does. This fear was so strong that it is what caused Okonkwo to decide to kill himself. “ Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man but his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness. It was deeper and more intimate than the fear of the and capricious gods and of magic, the fear of the forest, and of nature, malevolent, red in tooth and claw”(13). This shows how Okonkwo is more afraid to look weak than be fearful of all the Mystical Gods in the Igbo culture. This tells us a little why he killed himself because he did not want to look weak to the European people and die in there prison, so he took matters into his own hands by killing himself. “ Afraid? I do not care what he does to me. I despise him and those who listen to him. I shall fight alone if I choose”(201). This shows that Okonkwo is not afraid of no one and He will fight anyone even if it is a losing battle, he will still fight a war and Okonkwo will not give in and lose or give up on the battle and look weak. This is why Okonkwo will not give into the Europeans who brought the new religion and culture like the rest of his brothers did in his village and some of his actual family. This is why he rather die than give into the European rules. The
fear of of looking weak made Okonkwo to who he is and the decisions he decided to make. Finally there were many reasons to Okonkwo’s culture beliefs that lead to his death, because of the Igbo people change in the religion,lost in his family, and didn’t want to look weak to the European people. Okonkwo struggled through the whole story with all these new changes in his tribe. Okonkwo is losing all the things he learned and loved with Nwoye leaving his family, whole new religion, laws, and new cultural all around. This shows that change is not always the best thing for people, such as in Okonkwo’s case, so what is your opinion on change in the world and is it always for the better?
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
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.
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
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.
Okonkwo had dreams, some of his dreams were fulfilled while others weren’t. Okonkwo's dreams were to be successful and better than his father which happened because he was one of the greatest, well known and respected men in the tribe of Umuofia. His other dream was for his son Nwoye to be just like him which didn’t happen since Nwoye was not happy with the way he was being treated and he went and joined the white men church in spite of his father.
Okonkwo is deemed the hero of this story, but he is not a traditional hero. Much like the common archetype, Okonkwo represents a whole culture. Achebe wrote this book to display the true, complex culture of the Nigerian people, and Okonkwo is the piece on which the topic is presented. In Katie Bacon’s interview with Chinua Achebe, the author discusses his book. He believes that the world is “portraying Africa as a place […] where humanity is really not recognizable” (Bacon 219). Because of this, the well-known author wrote Things Fall
The first reason Okonkwo’s sense of identity was challenged with the introduction of Western ideas into the Ibo culture was because, Okonkwo started out in the novel as a strong person ; role model, but the cultural collision of the British colonists and Ibo people affected his reputation to the point of him going through a crisis and committing suicide. The reasons for this tragic change in their sense of identity included others looking at him differently & people disliking him . Overall, their response to the introduction of Western ideas shaped the meaning of the work
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
Okonkwo was ashamed of him and did everything possible to never end up like his father. When the narrator stated, “With a father like Unoka, Okonkwo did not have the start in life which many young men had. But he threw himself into it like one possessed. And indeed he was possessed by the fear of his father’s contemptible life and shameful death” (pg. 18). The.
Achebe shows us a culture that is on the verge of change. Within the story we find out how the reality of change is brought upon several characters, and what their actions follow. Just like how African’s resisted the white’s over taking their country in reality, Achebe implements the same idea with the use of several characters. Okonkwo, for example, is completely opposed to the new political and religious upbringing that has come upon his clan. He feels that a real man does not change his views and beliefs for another mans views and beliefs. He see’s it as a sign of weakness. As we see throughout the novel, Okonkwo’s fear of losing his title and status, drives him further away from the idea of changing and adapting to the new religion. Achebe shows us how there will always be those that fight against the change, but in the end the stronger religion will over take and turn the others. Unfortunately for him, Okonkwo finding out his clan is converting is heart aching and he finds complete weakness in his clan. Achebe ties both themes of change and masculinity very well, and both themes support each other in every way. In reality, many Africans resisted the colonizers trying to destroy their religion, but the colonization wasn’t as severe as Achebe presented in her novel. “Groups strongly resisted the coming of European
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a story about personal beliefs,customs, and also a story about an identity confliction. There is struggle between family, culture, and religion of the Ibo tribes. It shows how things fall apart when these beliefs and customs are challenged and how a personal identity changes for a man. The novel concerns the life of Okonkwo, a leader and local wrestling champion throughout the villages of the Ibo ethnic group of Umuofia in Nigeria, Africa, his three wives, and his children. Throughout the novel, Okonkwo is internally challenged and slowly becomes someone that is no longer recognizable by his friends or his family. When Okonkwo faces change, his identity starts to fade.
Upon an initial reading of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, it is easy to blame the demise of Okonkwo’s life and of the Umofia community on the imperialistic invasions of the white men. After all, Okonkwo seemed to be enjoying relative peace and happiness before then. He did have a few mishaps; one of them resulted in him being exiled for eight years. Nonetheless, he returned to his home town with high spirits and with prospects of increased success. However, everything has changed. The white men have brought with them a new religion and a new government. Okonkwo’s family falls apart. The men in his village lose their courage and valor; they do not offer any resistance to the white men. Consequently, Okonkwo kills himself in disgrace and Umofia succumbs to the white men. However, the white men are not the only people responsible for demise of Umofia. The Igbo culture, particularly their views on gender roles, sows the seed of their own destruction. By glorifying aggressive, manly traits and ignoring the gentle, womanly traits, Umofia brings about its own falling apart.
Throughout history, there have been many instances of people struggling to identify and cope with change and tradition, and this is no different in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Through most of the novel, Okonkwo, his family, and the villagers all experience this struggle. As the missionaries continue to live in the Evil Forest, they repeatedly gain village converts as a result of the Igbo beliefs constantly being proven inaccurate. Okonkwo’s son, Nwoye, converts because of confusion in what his people believe, and Okonkwo changes drastically as a person because of the missionaries’ arrival and actions.
As “he lay on his bamboo bed, he thought about the treatment he had received in the white man's court and, he swore vengeance. If Umuofia decided on war, all would be well. But if they chose to be cowards he would go out and avenge himself” (199). Okonkwo is willing to take any risk, whether it endangered him or not. The spell was broken by the head messenger “let me pass he ordered”!
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.