How Does Cultural Change Drive Some People Insane

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

But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness.” Many people believed that Okonkwo was such a cruel man because of the wall that he put up. This affected his family because he still continued to act tough with his wives and most of his kids, there was only one of his children that saw his soft side and that was Emzina, his daughter. He also thought a lot about one of the people he killed, which showed that he wasn’t the tough guy that everybody thought he was, but no matter what he refused to show any signs of weakness to avoid being like his

In Things Fall Apart, when the missionaries first come to Umuofia, Okonkwo is very adamant in resisting their ways. He refuses to conform to them and holds fast to his traditional beliefs. He believes that Christianity is “womanly” and his own practices

He is impulsive. He acts before he thinks. He often offends the igbo peoploe and their traditions as well as the gods of his clan. When the white man brought Christianity to Umuofia, Okonkwo felt that the changes are ruining the Igbo culture. This is his tragic flaw, the inability to accept change. For him, hard work and effort were the true way of living and if you didn’t have any of those you were not worthy for his acknowledgement.

This is an example of the difference in personal beliefs among family. Some may say that the book is about the differences in beliefs between the Africans and the colonizers, but it is more than that. It is clear that it was Okonkwo's personal beliefs and not necessarily the views of the people of Umuofia which guided him in what he did. One of these is his reliance in the strength of anger. Although he felt strongly in the beliefs and customs of the Ibo people, there are several occasions in which Okonkwo made a decision to disobey the customs in order to live out his own personal beliefs. For example, in chapter four, Okonkwo is yelled at by Ezeani, the priest of the earth goddess, for beating his wife during the sacred week of peace. Okonkwo did not feel remorse for his actions and probably thought of it as a sign of strength and manhood. Okonkwo was always worried about being seen as weak. One good

Okonkwo’s fear of unmanliness is kindled by his father, who was a lazy, unaccomplished man. Okonkwo strives to have a high status from a young age and eventually achieves it. He has a large family, many yams and is well known throughout the village for his valor. He

We take a look at his personality and see that he had a warrior complex and machismo. For example in the novel on page 158 paragraph six it says “let us not reason like cowards.” His warrior complex turns everything he does like a battle plan. He wants there to be a fight or else they are not doing it right. Okonkwo’s machismo makes everyone else who is not like him not a man. In the book we see this on page 26 paragraph two “this meeting is for men.” He did not want to listen to the man because he was not well known like him and he did not have as many titles as okonkwo did. Both of these traits aided in the way he responded to the new culture.

To begin, Okonkwo's response to the Europeans shows how differences in customs and values can lead to conflict. When Okonkwo returns to Umuofia, he is surprised that his clan has been taken over by the Europeans and that people were starting to give up preserving their own religion and customs. When he confronts Obierika, Obierika explains to Okonkwo, “‘How do you think we can fight when our own brothers have turned against us? … Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.’” Okonkwo feels betrayed as many of his clan members have left and joined the Europeans, showing the clash between Ibo culture and Western culture. The Ibo people value staying true to their own traditions while the

Okonkwo is also incredibly aggressive. He regularly physically abuses his nuclear family and does so to make himself seem more masculine. His violence in order to protect his fragile masculinity goes to the extent that “his wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper.” (2.12) After the missionaries arrive in Umuofia and Okonkwo’s

However,But his culture is changing, the values of manliness are being replaced by the values of the new religion, Cchristianity: “Okonkwo was deeply grieved. And it was not just personal grief. He mourned for the clan, which he saw breaking up and falling apart, and he mourned for the warlike men of Umuofia, who has unaccountably become soft like women”(183). The people of his village are changing, they are no longer the “warlike men” that they once were. He sees how his clan is changing and when he realizes that he can not stop the change, he takes his own life. He cannot not and will not live in a world so different than the one he used to. In the end Okonkwo's manliness is the reason he dies, making it a very fatal flaw

He couldn’t be the leader of the clan anymore because the white people took over and his people are going along with the white people. Everyone in his culture was changing because the white people came over and started to put their culture into the Igbo people’s head. They tore down the churches without the people permission. This made some of the Igbo people mad but some of them liked the idea and started to change and believe in what the others believed in. Okonkwo was upset with the

As a result he thinks that he can do as he pleases. His temper is a major issue, “He had a slight stammer and whenever he was angry and could not get words out quickly, enough, he would use his fist. ”(Achebe, 4). Okonkwo is a great leader, but sometimes his temper gets the best of him. Okonkwo also has a problem with controlling his own life, “But his whole life was dominated by fear of failure and of weakness.

After killing one of the messengers who came to disband the meeting of Okonkwo’s people, instead of the support Okonkwo hoped for in his people, they had turned on him and set the missionary people free.Okonkwo ends up killing himself, his, “...body was dangling” (Achebe 207). Instead of proving his masculinity and strength for killing the white missionary, Okonkwo is showered with doubt and judgement for his actions. Okonkwo realizes that his society has changed, and his actions did not make him look strong but rather weak in their eyes. The fear of looking and being regarded as weak by both his society and the new society that has joined them consumed him so much to the point where he chooses to kill himself. The power the fear has over one can lead them into destructive ways, not only to the people around them, but also to themselves. Okonkwo’s fear has driven him to destruction and failure. To the people surrounding him, and finally to

When the new religion is brought over by the white men, Okonkwo strongly opposes to it because he felt that its qualities display weakness and would destroy the Ibo culture. He refused to change and stuck to his old ways, but as more and more of his clansmen convert, Okonkwo sees his world start to crumble. “Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer stand as one” (Achebe 176). His clan slowly divides into two clear-cut sides, but the Ibo people didn’t want to fight back the new religion. As a result, Christianity took over everything, from the government, to the judicial system. Feeling powerless, Okonkwo commits his final act of vengeance and kills a messenger, committing suicide soon after. If the Umoufia had tried to fight back Christianity, they wouldn’t have loss so much power this quickly. This reluctance was due to the absence of

Other critics believe Okonkwo has the ability and power to control his fate, as well as his chi, throughout his life. For instance, “Okonkwo resorts to violence in order to maintain control of a situation and assert his manliness” (Iyasere 68). This quote nearly means Okonkwo must constantly oversee situations, especially situations involving his chi. Because of his physical strength and persistently violent attitude, Okonkwo is feared, as well as respected, by those around him as a leader and conqueror. “His fame rested on solid personal achievements,” Chinua Achebe shares (1). Besides his physical attributes, Okonkwo “treat[s] [others] with great honor and respect” (Achebe 12), but not his chi. Instead of bargaining with his chi about certain decisions regarding his fate, such as immediately apologizing to his wife during the Week of Peace, Okonkwo alternatively “mold[s] his chi to his will,” Solomon Iyasere claims, in order to get what he wants (68). This violent