Who Is Responsible For Okonkwo's Downfall

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Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, tells a story about an unquestionably beloved tribe leader that goes through a series of tragic events that cause him to seem as if he was a poor tribe member. The story is about a member of the Igbo tribe names Okonkwo. He is a loved and looked up to him as the leader of the tribe. The book tells Okonkwo's story and how he goes from being such an amazing leader to one of the worst members of the tribe. It shows how he goes through so much and how he is faced with so much stress. When the white missionaries come, Okonkwo doesn’t know how to react. The downfall is a result of fatal errors in judgement and/or a weakness of character; the choices made create a chain of events that lead to the catastrophe that …show more content…

Whenever Okonkwo decided that he couldn't handle everything anymore, he took his own life, making the audience feel sympathetic towards him. “Then they came to the tree from which Okonkwo’s body was dangling, and they stopped dead.” (207) After Okonkwo came to believe that his whole clan was falling apart, he decided that he couldn't take it anymore. Okonkwo believed that the easiest way out would be to take his own life. Okonkwo didn’t find pleasure in his work like he used to. He felt like it was useless. “Work no longer had for him the pleasure it used to have.” (131), this shows that Okonkwo had started to realize that something was wrong and things didn’t feel right. This shows foreshadowing of how Okonkwo’s life is about to go downhill. Okonkwo did countless things that draw him in trouble throughout the book. “Nobody else spoke, but they noticed the long stripes on Okonkwo’s back where the warder’s whip had cut into his flesh.” (199), Okonkwo received a whipping for wrongdoing which shows that no longer is he the most looked up to man in Umofia, but he is slowly starting to become one of the most hated. In conclusion, Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, is a wonderful story that informs you on how life was at that time. It also shows you how Okonkwo started off great and ended horribly. Okonkwo would not accept the white men and their

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