How Does Okonkwo's Change In Things Fall Apart

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

In the essay Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, there are five meaningful quotes that revolve around Okonkwos status during his life. In the beginning of the novel Okonkwo became an important part of his village early in his life when he defeated Amaline the Cat in a wrestling match. His victory made him a celebrity among the nine villages of Umuofia because Amaline had been undefeated for seven years. At this point, Okonkwo began on the path to high social status among his village, which was his goal throughout his life.

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’s sense of greatness and leadership was not looked at anymore because of the Western ideas into the ibo culture. How people looked at him like he was a God and Warrior at the same time which came before the White men culture also came in place. He was a brave and strong men

In the novel Things Fall Apart, author Chinua Achebe introduces a character by the name of Okonkwo. Okonkwo is a hard-working man, with three wives, and eight children. Okonkwo grew up poor with a lazy, unsuccessful father who was indebted to many people and had little to no control over his life. Because Okonkwo did not inherit any barns or wives from his father, he started from scratch and took it upon himself to work twice as hard as many other men of the Ibo culture. His father’s lack of success was his fuel to be great and achieve many things.

Okonkwo is Known as man who brung honor among his tribe at the ages of 18. He did so by defeating a man named the cat at a wrestling match. The reason he was called the cat is because he had never lost a fight in the seven years he was wrestling and whenever he got off balance he always landed on his feet just like a cat.the older okonkwo got the more he did not want to be like his father unoka. Unoka always owed a person in his tribe and spent most of his money on wine to drink and to share with the people in his tribe. He also could not stand the sight of blood. For this okonkwo seen him as weak.

Okonkwo, as well as many other characters, had a cultural collision when the white missionaries came to Mbanta in chapter 16. What the Ibo didn’t know was that the missionaries were slowly gaining control of the Ibo tribe in Mbanta. The missionaries were building churches, schools, and bringing over their own laws. This meant the missionaries were teaching the Ibo what they wanted the Ibo to know and believe. The missionaries also brought the death penalty with them in the process. They had done all of these things intentionally, without considering the Ibos customs. Okonkwo, unlike the others, had a very hard time adapting to the ways that the missionaries had brought over.

First, Okonkwo starts off as a poor child, as shown when the book states, “Okonkwo did not have the start in life which many young men usually had, he did not inherit a barn from his father. There was no barn to inherit” showing that Okonkwo and his family were penurious, compared to others in the Igbo tribe (Achebe 16). Eventually, through his hard work and effort, he became a noble leader, which emphasizes his role as a tragic hero. Throughout the story Okonkwo goes through many challenges, but “In the face of futility, however, he maintains his nobility of character”(Gaydosik).

All the changes made it hard for him to adjust to the new way his village lived and caused him to slowly lose his sanity. Okonkwo is portrayed as a respected man in his village. He was well known in his village. He had many achievements that gave him titles and statuses. When he was a young man he threw down Amalinze the cat who was known as a great wrestler who was undefended for seven years.

“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

From an early point in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe it is found that Okonkwo had thoughts that he was going to do great things one day. Pulling away from what his family was, primarily his dad, “Unoka, the grown-up, was a failure. He was poor and his wife and children had barely enough to eat” (Achebe, 5), Okonkwo knew he needed to make a new name for himself and the generations to come. Growing a large sense of strength and manliness lead to being a well respected higher-up member of the Umuofia clan. As these qualities of Manliness and Strength develop throughout Okonkwo’s life it shows both the highs and lows of his life and it can give us a better picture into the lives of our current American Leaders.

On the other hand, another characteristic of Okonkwo that causes him to be seen as a tragic hero is his struggle to deal with the crumbling Igbo culture around him. Upon his return to Umuofia from his motherland, everything has changed among the Igbo people. The white men had completely torn apart a culture which at one point seemed to be so strong. Some had even been converted into Christians and almost everyone was questioning their own beliefs. According to Stephen Criswell, when Okonkwo returned, he had a decision to make between standing up for what he believed in and against what he hated, or complying with the white man’s way and being like everyone else in the tribe(Criswell). Unlike the others, Okonkwo would not back down, and that is why he is a hero. The Igbo culture was slowly being destroyed by the

Achebe uses Okonkwo’s feelings of unhomeliness and disunity with the tribe to demonstrate that the colonizers invasion of culture caused his death. The white colonizers have brought their influence to the entire Ibo civilization. Even though they started out as peaceful religious missionaries, they have now forced their own culture onto the Ibo culture. As the tribe begins to adapt and change their culture, Okonkwo is trying to force them to revert to the traditional culture. At a village meeting, when white court messengers appear to stop their gathering, Okonkwo begins “trembling with hate, unable to utter a word” (204). This demonstrates that he is so opposed to the colonizers that he begins to physically tremble with rage. While other community

“If a child washed his hands he could eat with kings” (Achebe 8). This quote truly affects Okonkwo's values. He himself did this when he rose from great poverty to a tribal elder. This aphorism was respected by everyone in the community. People were not judged on by their father's success. Because of this Okonkwo works hard to gain status and made it his goal in life to not be like his father. In the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe Okonkwo's actions were due to extreme belief in his village`s saying that if you worked hard you would be greatly rewarded.

In the novel ”Things Fall Apart,” by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo is a character who shows the difficulty of staying true and saving his religion. Okonkwo is a very strong man. At times he may be very stubborn, like most men. With many occasions he is very impatient and struggles with controlling his anger. In the book, he is exiled for seven years. During those seven years missionaries come into the village and try to make all of the Ibo tribe convert into Christianity. Since he,Okonkwo, is not there to kick them out they have managed to convince a few people, including his son. This leads him to be very upset and angry when he comes out of exile. The author, Chinua Achebe, is trying to show culture and strength