Notes On Chinua Achebe 's ' Things Fall Apart '

Okonkwo becomes furious, kills a messenger, and then commits suicide in order to avoid being captured by the white men. Okonkwo cannot accept the evangelists, as they have made him lose his power and control over the community and his son. The change in Okonkwo’s life is negative as it makes Okonkwo desperately look for solutions, although there are none. His internal struggle with change leads him to kill another human and himself out of inability to do

7. “Okonkwo ruled his house with a heavy hand. His wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper, and so did his little children.”

E. Okonkwo’s experience of exile leaves a shocking ending with Okonkwo taking his own life.

Okonkwo did not taste any food for two days after the death of Ikemefuna. He drank palm-wine from morning till night, and his eyes were red and fierce like the eyes of a rat when it was caught by the tail and dashed against the floor. He called his son, Nwoye, to sit with him in his obi. But the boy was afraid of him and slipped

Okonkwo’s view is further developed when he “encouraged [Nwoye and Ikemefuna] to sit with him in his obi, and he told them stories of the land- masculine stories of violence and bloodshed” (53). This quote shows that Okonkwo believes gory subjects to be suitable and honestly necessary for men entering “manhood.” He takes these two

Still unable to accept and adapt to the change he encounters, Okonkwo uses a method of violence by killing the messenger from the Christians and at last kills himself. Okonkwo’s suicide marks that he finally meets his fate. He stands for his power, strength, and masculinity and has great pride for his achievement. After realizing that he cannot conquer his chi and escape from miserable events, he gives up his life by

He believed that his father’s actions were feminine and therefore worked hard to become a warrior. Along with not wanting to appear feminine, Okonkwo does not think his actions through. When Ikemefuna was brought into Okonkwo’s family, he accepted him and the two became very close. But after three years Ikemefuna was sentenced to death and Okonkwo was sent out with him. As the man raised up his machete Ikemefuna run to Okonkwo, “My father, they have killed me!” as he ran towards him. Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak”(Achebe 61). In this split second Okonkwo lets his emotions and fears of appearing weak win and did not allow himself time to think. Achebe utilizes Okonkwo to display the principle of cause and effect. Okonkwo is very proactive and does things on a whim. By doing so he makes hasty decisions that will be regretted in the long run. Okonkwo’s suicide was caused by a hasty decision and the responses of the tribesman. “He heard voices asking: “Why did he do it?”(Achebe

     The book focuses on one of the tribe members, Okonkwo. He is a well respected member of the tribe. Okonkwo is a good example of a respected member of the tribe who also has great renown. He is known as a great wrestler and warrior of the nine villages of the tribe. He is a very powerful and influential member.

The excerpt serves to tragic death of Okonkwo. From the beginning of the novel Okonkwo has been described as a great man worthy of a large funeral. Achebe even goes to the extent of providing an example of what a

The missionaries conflict with everything Okonkwo believes or values. The missionaries are so outlandish to Okonkwo that his first reaction is just to laugh at them. This is shown on page 147, paragraph 4, “ At the end of it Okonkwo was fully convinced that the man was mad. He shrugged his shoulders and went away.” Okonkwo later begins to understand the threat the missionaries pose to his society and passionately speaks for forcing the missionaries out of Umuofia. However when his people will not listen to him, he feels like he is forced to take matters into his own hands. This is shown on page 204, paragraph 7,” Okonkwo’s machete descended twice and the man’s head lay beside his uniformed body”. The Ibo people do not join in on the violence as Okonkwo had hoped, which contradicted with Okonkwo belief that the Ibo were warrior people. This final loss of Okonkwo’s core beliefs is what shatters Okonkwo’s final sense of identity as a man. As Okonkwo is no longer any of the things he has come to identify himself as, and Okonkwo blames the missionaries for this, his final response to the missionaries is to take his own life. Okonkwo's death is shown on page 207, paragraph 3 “ Then they came to the tree from which Okonkwo’s body was dangling, and they stopped dead.” When Okonkwo identity was ripped from him he no longer saw a point in living and his fight with the

Okonkwo the son of the useless and unimportant father Unoka strives to become rich and successful in the Ibo, unlike his father who was simple, poor and always was in debt from all of the people around. Okonkwo tries to

This incident occurs in chapter seven when the author states, “Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down” (Achebe 61). After this, Okonkwo begins to suffer from severe emotional damage. He can no longer sleep or eat for days after the murder of Ikemefuna. While there are no physical consequences of this act of violence, Okonkwo suffers from emotional consequences. Another example of violence with consequences is shown through the accidental murder of a

     Slowly the men make their way up the hill with Obierika in the lead. Leaves crunch as feet uniformly step onto the ground. The commissioner and his soldiers are warily eyeing their surroundings. Each man snuggles close to Okonkwo’s compound wall, hoping not to be seen. They go past a small bush. It is next to a red hole in the wall where small animals enter and exit the compound. Finally, the men all stop. They spot the body dangling from a tree. They stand upright in shock. The carcass of Okonkwo steadily swings in the breeze. As each man looks upon it disbelievingly, Obierika says to the commissioner heatedly, “That man was one of the greatest men in Umuofia. You drove him to

We sense that the death of Ikemefuna has been a turning point in the story. The sense of foreboding grows. We know the inevitability of disaster now; the crisis is developing. Okonkwo has ignored the advice of Ezeudu, the wise man inserted in the tale in traditional Greek form. Although he was warned, Okonkwo kills the boy to show his strength, his bravery,

A tragedy has a protagonist named Okonkwo. Okonkwo is someone who is renowned or prosperous, and has a change from good to bad or vice versa. Okonkwo was known as a rising clansman of Umuofia. He has three wives and eight children. Okonkwo has many changes of prosperity during Things Fall Apart. First off, he got his start by sharecropping for Nwakibie. Sharecropping, is a system of agriculture in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crop produced on the land. From then on, he acquired his own farm and animals to sharecrop. When he thought that he could never fall, Okonkwo had a painful twist in fate. His gun exploded and killed Ezeudu’s son. Okonkwo was then displaced for seven years, and from there everything began to fall apart.