European Interaction Through The Eyes Of Okonkwo

Lastly, the missionaries drive Okonkwo to violence and brutality through the mere presence of them in Umuofia. For example, Okonkwo ‘trembles with hate, unable to utter a word’ (204) as they integrate Christianity into his village. Thus, Okonkwo’s hatred and closed mind with his son, his community, and the missionaries drive him to mental stress, causing his life to turn into bad struggle and savagery. Firstly, after Nwoye shows disloyalty towards his father, Okonkwo disowns him. He tells his other children the ‘great abomination’ Nwoye is and how ‘he is no longer his son or their brothers’ (172). This dispute within the kinship is due to Okonkwo’s resistance to embrace his son's beliefs and admiration for Christianity. His unwillingness to see through the ‘betrayal’ of his son leads to division in family, hurting his mental state. Furthermore, the people within his village create angst in his life as well. With all the change in Umuofia, Okonkwo develops a new outlook on the men and people, seeing them as weak and frail. To illustrate, he exclaims that ‘he mourned for the clan’ and ‘mourned for the warlike men of Umuofia, who had unaccountably become soft like women’

Because of the lack of acceptance from his family, especially his father, he is forced to make a choice between his new culture, or his loved ones. He chooses to leave, and when ask by his father’s friend, obierka, Nwoye says [quote about Okonkwo not being his father]. Okonkwo doesn’t take it well either stating to his children [the thing about them being dead to him or something]. This action shows Nwoye’s willingness to value his new faith in Christianity over his own blood. His troubling past with his father and sense of belonging makes it easy for him to change his life for the better by leaving. The missionaries offer Nwoye a better alternative to the oppressive life he is living, which gives him peace of mind as he leaves his family behind. In the wake of Nwoye growing up and struggling to find himself, he managed to go through a cultural shift and completely change his identity. As some Ibo people also choose to convert also, the missionaries gain more and more power over the village. Things begin to fall apart for the Ibo clan as they are divided because of the forces within themselves. The village of Umuofia is ultimately destroyed because of the split between the people living there. Although Nwoye never felt quite in the right place before, he finds peace of mind in his new sense of self, and easily forgets his past to start a new and better

In the book “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe, we see the effect the white missionaries had on an African tribe and the antihero Okonkwo. The main character Okonkwo is a tragic hero. Achebe depicts Okonkwo as a Shakespearean hero with a tragic flaw, that tragic flaw is the fact that he will do anything in his power not to be a weak man like his father Unoka. Okonkwo did what he did because he hated his father and would do anything in his power to be the exact opposite of his father.

Okonkwo’s story portrays the major differences between African culture and the idea that the Western society had on the African culture. Okonkwo is native to the Umuofia tribe and represented this oversized human being who with holds no emotion. All this makes Okonkwo seem very unrelatable and unfriendly, but this is what makes his relationships with the characters in the book so entertaining. For example, Okonkwo had a very negative connection with his father that affected him so much that it brought him to the point where it changed his life and is also the reason why he is so strict with his kids. With the introduction of these missionaries into the tribe, it completely changed the way the tribe acted and ended up bringing Okonkwo to a point where he had to pay the ultimate price. It was all because they couldn’t get along.

Life before the coming of the Westerners was the life Okonkwo loved. “Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond. His fame rested on solid personal achievements. As a young man of eighteen he had brought honour to his village by throwing Amalinze the Cat” (Achebe 1). With his entire life ahead of him, Okonkwo had brought great fame to his name and had already achieved what it took some men a lifetime before he turned twenty. He was regarded as “one of the greatest men of all time” (Achebe 3). Not only

This novel is the definitive tragic model about the dissolution of the African Ibo culture by Nigerian author, Chinua Achebe. Okonkwo, a great and heroic leader, is doomed by his inflexibility and hubris. He is driven by fear of failure.

His sense of identity was challenged with the commencement of Western concepts being forced onto the Ibo people. The cultural collision of the European colonists and the Ibo people affected Okonkwo to the point of committing suicide and dying a execrable death like his father. The reasons for Okonkwo’s instantaneous change in their sense of identity involved pride, loss of honor, and lack of respect.

    The Ibo culture in Things Fall Apart began to experience colonization, all after Okonkwo was exiled. He was sent away for seven years for killing a clansman. As soon as Okonkwo had left, Umuofia was greeted by Christian missionaries. They were there to convert the villagers to Christianity, to build churches, schools, and hospitals for them. When Okonkwo was exiled, Nwoye snuck off to be among the Christians. He enjoyed being around them and examined their religious views. But, Okonkwo was not happy about Nwoye’s decisions. Okonkwo chokes him by the neck, and demands Nwoye to tell him where he has been. “I don’t know, he is not my father.” (Achebe 137) Being almost killed by his own father really encouraged Nwoye to disassociate himself from his father completely and to head back home to Umuofia. Nwoye was drawn to Christianity because it made him feel welcomed, rather than when he was apart of his native religion.

“There was a saying in Umuofia that as a man danced so the drums were beaten for him.” - Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart. What if those drums stopped beating with that man? What if that man beat to his own drum as those drums beat for another? Another that was foreign, invasive, and contradictory. How long would it be until that man beat his drums no more? Is this not the same thing that happened to Okonkwo when his sense of cultural identity was challenged by the introduction of Western ideas into the Ibo culture. Okonkwo was an embodiment of his culture, a man who cared for his tribe and his place in it. When Western ideas challenged his tribe, he hopeless in his culture as he realized their downfall. In the end, his response to the introduction

Starting with the first effect of imperialism, the introduction of Christianity in Umuofia, Okonkwo’s fatherland. Four years into Okonkwo’s exile, his good friend Obierika payed him a visit, informing Okonkwo of the arrival of missionaries in Umuofia. The Christian followers had to come to Umuofia to build a church and to convert locals into their anomalous religion. Most importantly, “what moved Obierika to visit Okonkwo was the sudden appearance of the latter’s son, Nwoye, among the missionaries in Umuofia.” (Achebe 143) The introduction of Christianity was one of the many effects set upon the African villages. Locals were becoming

From the outset it is important to acknowledge that the primary motive cause for Okonkwo’s destruction must be located in the fact of British colonisation of Igboland. Put bluntly, if the British had not come to Umuofia, the clan would not have fallen apart and Okonkwo would not have been led to commit suicide. Of course it is true that there are flaws and contradictions in Umuofian clan tradition which give rise to internal tensions and which alienate certain members of the society. These include such specific instances as the throwing away of twins, the irrational taboo of the osu or outcasts, as well as, at times, the apparently senseless decrees of the gods and oracle, which produce fear and uncertainty rather than stability in the society. More generally, there is the societal privileging of masculine, warrior-like qualities which leads to the marginalization of the gentle and the weak, such as Unoka and Nwoye; of the unsuccessful, who are labeled efulefu, or worthless men; and, most notably, of women, who are everywhere rendered subordinate to patriarchal domination. There is also the instance of Okonkwo’s seven-year banishment from the clan, which seems an overly harsh penalty for an inadvertent crime, and which causes Obierika, at least, to question the fitness of the punishment. Nevertheless, Achebe is at pains in the lengthy first part of the novel to establish that Umuofian society is generally stable and coherent, and that such flaws as do exist are insufficient

Okonkwo is the main character in the novel “Things Fall Apart”, written by Chinua Achebe. Okonkwo had a lot of characteristics some good one’s and some bad ones. From being a successful farmer and a loving father. The collision that happened with the missionaries, Okonkwo had respect for them but until they tried to change their culture. He had an strong positive response too the missionary coming too the igbo village.

The world is full of cultural collisions. Every day people meet other with different worldviews. This concept of cultural collision, is shown perfectly though Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. In the story it is the cultural collision, of the introduction of Western Ideas into the ibo society, that causes Achebe’s characters to grow and change. One character in particular is forced to reevaluate his sense of identity because of the cultural collision. This is the character of Okonkwo. The collision challenges Okonkwo’s sense of self, as a religious leader or an Egwugwu, as a leader of his people, and as a man. It is Okonkwo’s response to these challenges, that shapes the meaning of the book of that as your world changes so must you or you

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

Following Okonkwo’s seven year exile, the village Okonkwo once knew has changed due to the influence of Christianity and the influence of the British missionaries and officers. Okonkwo’s initial reaction is to arm the clan against the Colonisers and drive the British people out of Igbo.