Examples Of Savagery In Things Fall Apart

For all of his desire to be strong, Okonkwo is caught up by the constant fear of being perceived as weak. He is afraid of failure and afraid of being considered weak. This fear drives him to do whatever he can to not become a failure like his father which ironically contributes to his death. While Okonkwo was a strong and important figure in his tribe, he had to keep his reputation that way by making some hard decisions. One of them was when he had to kill Ikemefuna, a young boy from the neighboring tribe. Okonkwo started accepting the decision to kill Ikemefuna because he started to call Okonkwo father. He had to keep his own valor intact and kill the boy to prevent himself from showing any weakness, but deep down, Okonkwo was really upset because of what he did which was ironic, “’When did you become a shivering old woman,' Okonkwo asked himself, 'you, who are known in all the nine villages for your valor in war? How can a man who has killed five men in battle fall to pieces because he has added a boy to their number? Okonkwo, you have become a woman indeed.'" (Achebe 65). He continued to roll downhill when the white man comes to try and convert Okonkwo’s tribe. Okonkwo responds by killing one of the messengers that were sent. This cause Okonkwo's own tribe to question his actions. “"Okonkwo stood looking at the dead man. He knew that Umuofia would not go to war. He knew because they had let the other messengers escape.

Okonkwo causes suffering unto his peers by killing his adopted son Ikemefuna, beating his family, and killing the messenger.     Okonkwo a man who is thought of as a raging fire, will do anything in his power to be  thought of as masculine. He will go as far to kill his adopted son than to be looked at as a women.  Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna which causes suffering for his actual son, Nwoye. “ Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down.

Throughout history, humans have explicated many actions of savagery. It is in our nature since our ancestors needed it, in order to survive. Savagery is the quality of being fierce, violent and cruel. In the story, “Things Fall Apart,” by Chinua Achebe, is all based on the savagery people of Nigeria. Okonkwo our main character, known as, “Strong man,” is a powerful individual who has spread his name through his fearless and violent soul.

2. The Ibo people are in no way savages because they have an organized structure to their society with rules and laws. A society that employs morals, ethics, and accountability for peoples’ actions cannot be considered savage. The Ibo are highly religious; the base of most of their daily life revolves around religion, whether it is how they raise their families or how they grow their crops. “The Feast of the New Yam was held every year before the harvest began, to honor the earth goddess” (36). Yams control the Ibo economy, and if a person farmed well, success tended to follow. The Ibo village created a very stable economy due to this. The society itself is organized mostly by a person’s title, which states their place in a sort of government. The Egwugwu act much like “judges” and the people themselves try to settle things peacefully between each other.

Okonkwo has always been timid of not having power over others in his life, like his dad. “Okonkwo did not have the start in life like many young men usually had.”(16) This has regrettably lead to Okonkwo’s questionable ways of establishing power. In the story we find great irony to this as Okonkwo has ended up just as his father did, despite his great efforts not to. On the last page, 209, it says “The story of the man who killed a messenger and hanged himself would make an interesting reading”(209). Okonkwo wanted nothing less than to be better of a man than his father was. However his bad decisions lead to him losing all power and respect that he had ever gained. Okonkwo gains a form of tunnel vision on his life goals, “Okonkwo’s life has been ruled by a great passion”(131). He gains some wisdom when he is banished from his tribe and all the respect and power that he has earned is

Okonkwo disgusts the outsiders and their religion, that let him get mad, so he killed the messenger. In the book Okonkwo always wanted to hurt or kill others in he was in rage, and also his friends always stop him doing this. Okonkwo kills the messenger the he want to kill the other messenger his son Ikemefuna, his friends don’t want him kill this messenger and told Okonkwo “ how can you kill someone call you father” Okonkwo’s friends kindness, then Okonkwo, he ever wants to kill his son, his friends thinks okonkwo so unreasonable and cruel. When Okonkwo’s anger full of his mind, Okonkwo will don’t care people’s life want to kill, but his friends always help him calm and don’t let him kill

Although Okonkwo took many actions to help his family and village, he mainly caused hurt and pain to the people around him. First, it started with Ikemefuna. When Ikemefuna was taken to be killed, Okonkwo was informed to not come along but instead he went and ended up killing Ikemefuna. "Ikemefuna

Okonkwo was well known throughout his village and beyond for his fame which rested on personal achievements. He was a tempered man and couldn’t get his words out quick enough, and so, he would use his fists. His wives, especially the youngest, lived in fear of his fiery temper, and sometimes he would beat them. Why was Okonkwo so violent and cruel? This was because of his lazy, craven father, who wasted his life away, and died a failure.

“There are too many people, and too few human beings.” (Robert Zend) Even though there are many people on this planet, there are very few civilized people. Most of them are naturally savaged. In the book, Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, boys are stranded on an island far away, with no connections to the adult world. These children, having no rules, or civilization, have their true nature exposed. Not surprisingly, these children’s nature happens to be savagery. Savagery can clearly be identified in humans when there are no rules, when the right situation arouses, and finally when there is no civilization around us.

In current terms, the word has revolutionized and come to mean extraordinary or demonstrating sedulous actions. Using a literary example, Lord of the Flies by William Golding shows a numerous amount of "savage-like" behavior. The context of the word in the book is more towards the portrayal of impertinent behavior. It’s more about going against the norm of society which makes you a savage. But in present day meaning, a savage is someone who shows skill and outstanding

Fear drove Okonkwo to kill a boy that was like his son. One late night the elders of the clan took Ikemefuna, the young boy living with Okonkwo, to the woods where “Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down” (Achebe 61). Okonkwo did the unthinkable because he was afraid the elders would see him as weak. He held himself to a standard that was impossible to meet. Okonkwo felt so strongly about being the best that he allowed other people to control him.

After Okonkwo returned from exile he was devastated by the state of his tribe. Angered by the changes the white men had brought upon the village he executed one of their messengers (Achebe 189). This tension between the white men and the Igbo people triggered Okonkwo to take the life of a harmless messenger. The killing

Okonkwo is aggressive by nature, but his stoic personality combined with impulsiveness was a recipe for disaster. Okonkwo did not always think about the consequences of his actions, like when he beat one of his wives during the week of peace

Character Analysis of Okonkwo “... people said he had no respect for the gods of the clan. His enemies said his good fortune had gone to his head” (pg 31). A soldier of a renown clan, Okonkwo believes he must live up to everything his father was not, and that includes destroying all his weaknesses and humility. Okonkwo is a fierce warrior of the Umuofia clan in Africa, but has a fear of being weak or showing fear.

Okonkwo is motivated by a desire to prove himself superior to his father, who was cowardly and irresponsible and died a poor man with many unpaid debts. He viewed his father as overly pensive, slow to act, and womanly. Therefore, Okonkwo adopts opposite traits; Okonkwo is rash, quick to act, and excessively violent (Okonkwo associates violence with masculinity). Achebe uses figurative language like metaphors and similes to compare Okonkwo to a fire. “. . .