Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

Since Okonkwo stood out more than all the other men he was seen as Umuofia's most powerful man. Although Okonkwo is the most powerful man in Umuofia he also has weaknesses. One of those weaknesses is his father, he doesn’t wanna be a weak man and careless like his father. As the white missionaries moved in into their home land, the Igbo people who are unsure of how to react to these traditions either switched to their ways or stayed faithful to their faith. Many people became persuaded of the new religions authorities, however Okonkwo who is an warrior at heart refuses to accept the changes that were taking place in his community.

In the late 1800s, powerful European countries took to the seas to colonize Africa. They came with a few objectives in mind: gold, glory, and god. Christian missionaries permeated the villages, setting up churches and establishing relations within the tribe. Okonkwo’s clan was not exempt. “There were many men and women in Umuofia who did not feel as strongly as Okonkwo about the new dispensation. The white man had indeed brought a lunatic religion, but he had also built a trading store and for the first time . . . much money flowed into Umuofia,” (146). Okonkwo takes an emotionally-driven, defensive stance against the white men. He is disturbed by the rate at which their lives are changing. “Okonkwo was deeply grieved . . . He mourned for the clan, which he saw breaking up and falling apart, and he mourned for the

As many Umuofians are starting to shun the traditions, Okonkwo hopes that he can continue believing in Ibo culture’s ancient customs; however, the colonialists also influence him to act differently. Okonkwo has always been known to be “[impatient] with unsuccessful men” because his father was a humiliation (4). In Achebe’s writing, the readers can tell how Okonkwo wants to be everything his father was

More and more villagers were falling under this new idea of a single God, not only villagers from Umuofia but from surrounding villages. The locals were no longer against the new religion. Okonkwo was one of the few who still was. The local villagers were sort of thankful for what the white men had brought to Umuofia. “The white man had indeed brought a lunatic religion, but he has also built a trading store and for the first time palm-oil and kernel became things of great price, and much money flowed into Umuofia.” (Achebe 178) The white men had slowly convinced the local people that what they were doing was productive after all. The arrival of the white men in Umuofia allowed for larger flow of commerce. This is yet another effect of imperialism over the African villages, though it isn’t negative. The next effect however, is indeed negative and

Who are you? Have you ever wondered where you get your identity; what exactly defines you as a person? The obstacles in our lives shape us people, Chinua Achebe, author of Things Fall Apart illustrates the circumstances one man and his son face in an Ibo village in Nigeria. Okonkwo, the protagonist/antagonist has a tragic flaw, the fear of weakness which ultimately causes him to expect more from his son, Nwoye who never falls short in disappointing him. The relationship between the two is not the most desired seeing that they both do not show the affection most father-son relationships do. Traditionally, most sons follow their father's footsteps, however, this is not the case for both

However, they had different ways of dealing with the disease. In chapter 18, the people of Mbanta had an assembly and came to the conclusion of outcasting the people that were affiliated with the cursed Christians. This passive aggressive mentality was working fine until the Christians felt the need to be more aggressive. In chapter 20, the Christians are no more people who live at the area and worship their God at church, but now it is a community with a government. That leads to conflict within those regions, because now people who are not a part of the community are getting trialled and judged with the standard of the Christian belief, which goes against their own personal religion. Basically, the white man and his beliefs is slowly infecting, imposing and dominating the land. The last venue which could be taken was the aggressive one. The results of this route are shown through Okonkwo himself. In chapter 22, the men of Umuofia decide to take action slowly by burning down the church. Even though Okonkwo had different ideas such as killing the missionaries and finishing everything, the destruction of the church was a stepping

Due to his pride, Okonkwo was true to his religion and sense of identity. By beating Nwoye, Okonkwo realizes that he is losing his sense of identity because his own son, Nwoye “decided to go to Umuofia where the white missionary had set up a school to teach young Christians to read and write” (152). This means that Nwoye has decided to join the missionaries and help the British teach Christianity to others. This matters because Okonkwo has lost his oldest son to the missionaries. This consequence impacts Okonkwo because Nwoye seems to lose respect for him, showing that Okonkwo is losing his sense of identity. However, Okonkwo doesn’t give up, he tries to get his people to start a war against the missionaries by killing the messenger, but “he knew the Umuofia would not go to war. He knew because they had let the other messengers escape. They had broken into tumult instead of action. He discerned fright in that tumult. He heard voices asking ‘Why did he do it?’” (205). This means that his attempts to encourage the Ibo people to fight and start a war against the missionaries, results in a loss of hope. His people instead of supporting him question why he would do such a thing. Okonkwo finally realizes that he cannot save his village and its traditions no matter how fiercely he tries. Okonkwo himself feels utterly defeated because everything has fallen apart for

The seven year timespan allows the village members to assimilate to their ideologies as much as they can. The second part also shows Okonkwo’s subtle anger with his village for not wanting to take the white men head on, further foreshadowing that his masculine aggression will be what ruins him in the end. Part three is when things literally fall apart. When Okonkwo returns to his village, everything has changed. Okonkwo is outraged by the takeover, unlike many of his tribe mates, who had been able to gradually assimilate. “There were many men and women in Umuofia who did not feel as strongly as Okonkwo about the new dispensation” (Achebe 178). No one is taking his advice, which only makes him more upset. People are killing sacred symbolizations of Igbo gods with little to no consequences. He did not have the assimilation process the rest of the tribe had, and seeing as he is stubborn and temperamental, he acts without thinking of consequences and kills the white man. This action led to Okonkwo killing himself, since he knew what would happen if the white men were to catch him first. His death resembles the end of the Igbo

He brought fright in that tumult.” (pg 205). Citizens of Umuofia were scared and confusion never to have thought that the great man they once respected would due such thing. The idea of losing power and respect against someone else was unbearable to Okonkwo mind which can be shown as a sign of being scared to something that might be greater than one’s self. After killing the missionary Okonkwo didn’t want to live in a world were he would suffer consequences.

they wonder why he did it. Before the white men came to Umuofia, Okonkwo’s act of murdering a potential threat to the clan would not be questioned, but now everyone frowns upon Okonkwo’s actions. He is cast aside like a osu, an outcast. “…he mourned for the war like men of Umuofia, who had so unaccountably become soft like women”(Achebe 170) Okonkwo’s idea of manliness is not of high importance to the clansmen, at least not anymore. Consequently, his sense of identity changes. Being manly and strong was the only thing that Okonkwo had going for him, now he is loss of what he does with himself. The message that Chinua Achebe tells

Everyone in the Igbo tribe before the Christians came had depended on his or her own personal chi or God, if you had done something spiritually wrong your chi would call you out on it and in some way settle the score. In some ways Okonkwo had set his destiny in the beginning of the book by showing rash attitudes and the implication to self-destruct at any given time because of his unhappiness with himself. This may be because of how opposite Umuofia seems to be. One of Okonkwos friends says “Who knows what may happen tomorrow” and kind of sets the standard that we see in Umuofia too. There is a lack of central government and decision making which also seems to be why the Christians were allowed to settle in a tribe and win converts for quite a while before the town decided to make any harsh actions towards the

In Jefferey Meyers’s critical essay titled "Culture and History in Things Fall Apart,” he discusses both the positive and negative aspects of tribal life throughout the book. In doing so, Meyers points out that the Igbo people are cruel and that the white men colonizing Umuofia are helping rid of these cruel qualities. However, this is not the case; the Igbo people are simply expressing their culture and trying to protect the village through these “cruel” practices.

Not only do the whites bring a church, but they also bring a government. They build a court where the District Commissioner judges cases of ignorance. Court messengers are greatly hated among the Umuofians, in that they are foreign and arrogant. The Christian church has led many people away from the clan, from outcast to men with titles. With all this going on Okonkwo has feeling alike to happiness “the clan that had turned false on him appear to make amends” (192). The District Commissioner, sent Okonkwo and six other clan leaders, a “sweet-tongued” (193) message asking them to meet him at his compound. The six leaders were handcuffed and lead into the guardroom. They would be released upon the District Commissioner receiving two hundred bags of cowries. As the District Commissioner left, he ordered the head messenger to treat the leader of Umuofia with respect. The head messenger, who was also the prisoners’ barber, shaved off all the men's hair. Okonkwo was “choked with hate”(195). The mistreatment is very noticeable due to the long strips on Okonkwo's

Around the late 1800s, African communities resisted against the attempts to colonize their countries and force foreign domination . In Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart, colonizers come to the villages of Umuofia and Mbanta. The title is a reflection of the effect of colonialism on the novel’s protagonist, Okonkwo. He fights to stop the colonizers from taking control of his village. Throughout the novel, he struggles to not become lazy, like his father, and works desperately to keep his the culture of his village unbroken. In the novel, colonizers are represented in a dominant way to demonstrate the power they gradually gained over the Igbo people.

Their efforts to divide the natives and make them more reluctant to resist become increasingly more apparent as the book goes on. Specifically, when the church is first getting established, Mr. Kiaga demands the osu, or outcasts of the clan “... shave off the mark of [their] heathen belief” before he admits them into the church. By disproving the clans belief that the osu will die if they shave their heads, Mr. Kiaga helps to start whittling away at the clan’s unity. These strategies are highly effective, so that even when the clan is deciding to go to war, Okika mentions “If we fight the stranger we shall hit our brothers and perhaps shed the blood of a clansman.” The idea of fighting their own clansmen is so unappealing to the clan that many of the clan's members become ambivalent to the colonizer's cultural imperialism. This is evidenced when the narrator says after Okonkwo kills the kotma, “[Okonkwo] knew that Umuofia would not go to war. He knew because they had let the other messengers escape,” which is significant because Umuofia is known for being very aggressive and warlike, so letting these messengers escape is very uncharacteristic of