Okonkwo’s downfall was definitely inevitable. Okonkwo spent a majority of his life building up his reputation and striving to hold a high standard in his clan. Unfortunately, as time went on Okonkwo made some mistakes that tarnished his reputation. For example, one event that began his downfall was when in chapter thirteen Okonkwo was banished from his clan for seven years after he accidently killed Ezeudu’s sixteen-year-old son. There is no way the incident could have been avoided because Okonkwo’s gun went off accidentally and nothing could have been done to prevent the tragedy. Another occurrence that led to his downfall was in chapter twenty-four when he killed one of the missionaries’ court messengers. In Okonkwo’s eyes, the missionaries
...until it was too late that the other messengers were already gone. They could now inform The others that Okonkwo had killed one of them. After Okonkwo killed the messenger he realized that it was too late to save his culture and religion from to British who were seeking change. This rapid sequence of events led to Okonkwo's eternal downfall and he killed himself out of hopelessness.
5000 years ago, a man known to us as Ötzi died in the mountains. 1991 he was discovered again, turning into a mystery scientists would work on in the years to come. Evidence showed the scientists that he had been murdered, and they already know how he died, but exactly why was this man murdered? Using the evidence they collected from the injuries on his body and the objects they found with him, the scientists try to find out what the reason for his death was. The question has been keeping everyone stumped for a long time. Scientists are constantly trying to solve the mystery of why he died, and have been coming up with many different theories for his death. No one can know exactly, but one theory of a few stands out to me and makes a little
Okonkwo was broken when he was sent away from his “fatherland”. Mbanta was his “motherland”, which he took refuge for committing a “female”. He committed one of the two crime in Umofia “There are two types of crimes, male and female. Okonkwo has committed a female crime because the murder is an accident”(124). The reason Okonkwo fled to his “motherland” was because the accidental firing of his gun which killed Ekeudu's son. Okonkwo’s actions upset himself because “His life had been ruled by a great passion to become one of the lords of the clan. That had been his life spring. And he had all but achieved it. Then everything had been broken. He had been cast out of his clan like a fish on to a dray, sandy beach, panting. Clearly his
Okonkwo's downfall was predicted from the beginning. The book Thing Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is about the great warrior Okonkwo who builds his life in the Igbo tribe from the ground up. After adopting a child named Ikemefuna, Okonkwo's life goes downhill. Many things in Okonkwo's life could have caused his own destruction, but there are a few things that could have been bigger than others. I think that Ikemefuna's death played a big part, as well as Nwoye's betrayal, and his father's failure.
A famous philosopher named Aristotle once said, "He who is unable to live in a society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god" (Moncur ). Ever since the first humans, people have sought to live and grow where other people are. This organization of people living together as a community is called a society. For the members of it, society furnishes protection, continuity, security and identity. Without a society to be a part of, man is nothing. Therefore, if a man comes into conflict with his society, he must either accept these differences or be destroyed. This nightmare comes to life in Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart, when the main character, Okonkwo, clashes with his society's beliefs. The conflict that exists between Okonkwo and his society is what ultimately leads him to his downfall.
He hadn't realized he had his people in front of him until they were gone. In the page of 171 paragraph 1, it quotes “The clan was like a lizard, if it lost its tail, it soon get out another.” The quote defines that Okonkwo lost so many people and he wanted to restore them, the changes effected him dramatically from what the missionary was doing. In page 171 paragraph 2 quoting “Okonkwo knew these things. He knew that he had lost his place among the nine masked spirits who administered justice in the clan.” This evidence is explaining that Okonkwo lost his position, people who had admired him changed, he quickly lost his power. This made Okonkwo devastated which resulted badly for him as he was
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.
First of all, I feel that one of the main reasons why Okonkwo is considered a tragic hero is due to the weakness of his chi. His chi plays an important role in the novel because, according to Igbo culture, every time something goes wrong it is a result of bad chi. Throughout the beginning of Things Fall Apart Okonkwo seems to be one with his chi and everything seems to be going well. From the beginning the reader is meant to think that Okonkwo can overcome anything that he faces and this his chi is quite heroic up to this point in the story(Friesen).This i...
Okonkwo, a fierce warrior, remains unchanged in his unrelenting quest to solely sustain the culture of his tribe in the time of religious war in Achebe's book, Things Fall Apart. He endures traumatic experiences of conflict from other tribes, dramatic confrontations from within his own family, and betrayal by his own tribe.
Okonkwo’s determination to succeed in life and to not fail leads to his fatal downfall in the end of the novel. His inability to adapt to colonization and his failure to follow the morals of many of the morals of the Ibo culture also are an important key leading to his downfall. Okonkwo was willing to go to war against the missionaries, with or without the clan. He made it clear that he believed the missionaries were in the wrong for trying to change Umuofia. Since the clan wanted no part in the war with the missionaries, Okonkwo took action into his own hands and murdered the head messenger. During the killing of the messenger, Okonkwo had a moment of realization: “He knew that Umuofia would not go to war. He knew because they had let the other messengers escape. They had broken into tumult instead of action” (Achebe 205). Okonkwo finally understands that he doesn’t have support from his fellow clansmen anymore and he feels as if he loses his place in society. Instead of backing up Okonkwo and his decision to murder the messenger, the clan stood in both confusion and disorder and questioned, “ ‘Why did [Okonkwo] do it?’ ” (Achebe 205). Okonkwo’s impulsiveness causes the clansmen to question Okonkwo’s violent actions against the messenger. Throughout the entire novel, Okonkwo struggles to accept the missionaries and the changes that they
In the novel Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo is portrayed as a respected and determined individual whose fatal flaw eventually works against him. Throughout the novel the readers are shown that Okonkwo has many of these Characteristics because he is obsessed with the idea of becoming just like his father. This becomes his flaw in the novel that puts him into exile and makes it hard for him to adjust to the changes that were made with in his village.
Over the years, there have been many ideas of what a hero is. We all know the stories of superheroes like Batman, The Flash, Ironman, and The Incredible Hulk. Being a hero is more than being the strongest person around. There are everyday heroes that exist in our world. A hero can be anyone. Even a man doing something as simple and reassuring as putting a coat around a young boy's shoulders to let him know that the world hadn't ended. A hero could be a young boy helping an elderly woman cross the road. There is no exception. There are heroes all over ther world. all different shapes, races, and sizes. Chinua Achebe tells us the tale of an unsung hero named Okonkwo who lives in an Ibo village in Nigeria. Achebe’s Things Fall Apart demonstrates how Okonkwo is a righteous hero by showing how he handles every event in the rise and fall of his life.
Change, however, is inevitable, and those species and people unable to adapt to new circumstances are left behind. For Okonkwo to survive, he would have needed to reconstruct his beliefs but instead self-destructed; based on how passionate and determined Okonkwo was in his early life, his resistance to the change was complete and irreversible. It was his final downfall. As the Ibo ways changed, Okonkwo resisted such transformation and died with the old traditions.
Okonkwo is an interesting character that experiences many changes throughout the novel. He is a self made member of the Umuofia community unlike his father. His father’s cowardliness and laziness never provided for him or the rest of his family. Growing up, he developed a fear of becoming like his father and that is why it became his influence and purpose in life is to live successfully. This is one of the reasons he reaches troubling times along with his Chi. The concept of Chi plays a big role in his destiny and it was can be interpreted two ways after reading the book. It is possible that Chi may have caused his difficulties, but I believe that he caused them himself because of his strong-willed nature.
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