Okonkwo's Changes In Things Fall Apart

Just because you have everything doesn't mean you can't lose everything. Throughout the novel Chinua Achebe shows how the Igbo people keep their house safe and how they deal with disputes over money, killing, and disrespecting the gods. Throughout the novel it talks about how they protect their house’s, it talks about how the trials are handled, and how the law of their religion handles suicide.

In the novel Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, religion, an indispensable tradition is celebrated within the Igbo people. The Igbo people, hosts gatherings, worship, and celebrate their ancestors. They are polytheistic, in other words, they believe in many gods. The Igbo people also believe in sacrifices to their ancestors and crimes are considered as sins. Their ancestors and gods serve as a role model, or a sculpture, to whom they worship and sacrifice in Igbo society. However, the arrival of the European Missionaries not only brings tremendous changes to Igbo religion and culture, but also creates conflicts among them.

Ever seen something that may look odd to you? Or someone that shows up and you seem to wonder why they’re doing what they’re doing? Do you feel a little unpleasant about their actions? That’s totally normal, because that’s what we call cultural collision. In the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, he shows how cultural collision affected the Ibo culture in Nigeria because of colonization and the arrival of Europeans who brought forth a new religion, a new lifestyle and ways that challenge the Ibo culture. The conflict in Things Fall Apart is the struggle between change and tradition. Chinua Achebe demonstrates Okonkwo’s daily life as a struggle to resist changing from

In all English literature their are elements for example, Conflict, Theme, Dynamic Character, Static Character, Climax and the list goes on. At the beginning of the story Okonkwo was a strong brave warrior who feared no one. However when the story gets into more depth and the characters faces struggles Okonkwo tend to change in the story. From one strong warrior to someone who killed a child. From someone who never used to listen or respect his wife to a husband who shows a little change in him.

“Sometimes when things are falling apart, they may actually be falling into place” for example, when Okonkwo had got exiled for accidently killing that boy. His life seemed to be falling apart but in reality it was bringing the pieces of his life back together. This was an example of culture collision. Okonkwo’s sense of identity changed and was challenged. Okonkwo wanted to be a leader of the clan, wanted to use violence against British, and he didn’t want to change his Igbo ways.

Okonkwo feels as though his seven year exile was a waste of time, so he plans on

Toil has a negative connotation as it refers to hard work without cessation. While Okonkwo was serving his punishment in exile, Obierika brought word to Mbanta about the government the white men had brought with them. In this government, the District Commissioner oversees the judging of “men who had offended against the white man’s law” (174). The court messengers were the ones who had to do hard work: they, nicknames “Ashy Buttocks,” were responsible for fetching the defendant and forcing prisoners to work (175). When Okonkwo finally returns to Umuofia, the District Commissioner continues to do his facile task of judging the Ibo people and dishing out punishments. To describe the District Commissioner’s work as a toil is an overstatement.

He refused to even listen to such a person, for he was afraid they might make his belief in his culture waver. When the missionary came to visit Okonkwo after his return to Umuofia, Okonkwo, “had driven him away with the threat that if he came into his compound again, he would be carried out of it”. Achebe added this detail in to show to the readers Okonkwo’s refusal to try to find acceptance for these new people. The people in his tribe could find it in themselves to accept their co-existence with the Ibo people, but Okonkwo could not. It only became clear to Okonkwo, toward the end of the novel, that the tribe was not like him.

In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo starts off with so much strength and power. He is a leader in his village and, is always working towards more success.With many mistakes Okonkwo starts to lose everything including his respect and authority. He goes through some big changes, and his life completely turns around. His aggression and violence become out of hand, and he can not control himself. He has to face extreme punishments that change who is and how he feels. Okonkwo’s success decreases throughout Things Fall Apart.

In Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe shows that your life will always change and things will get thrown in your way but the ability to grow and learn from your problems is optional is shown through Okonkwo's failure to accept a new religion and the choices made by his tribe and son, eventually leading to him deciding that he can not continue with his life. He persistently bottled up his anger and his stubbornness, eventually self-restrained his ability to grow with his clan. Any signs of weakness had always been something that made Okonkwo angry so when his clan decided not to fight against these white men, Okonkwo couldn't accept the new religious views that the foreigners brought. He wanted to fight against them, but they were converting

The Clash Between Okonkwo and his new culture “ When one looks back over human existence, however, it is very evident that all culture has developed through an initial resistance against adaption to the reality in which man finds himself.” Beatrice Hinkle. Okonkwo’s sense of identity was challenged with the introduction of the western ideas into the Ibo culture. Okonkwo started out in the novel as a very powerful man, but then the cultural collision of the British colonists and Ibo people affected Okonkwo to the point of self-destruction. The reasons for Okonkwo’s change in their sense of identity included the white men coming to live among the Umuofians.

Nwoye’s identity is changed when he discovers the westerner’s ideas because he had felt abused until he found Christianity, Achebe is telling the audience that there is always hope because Nwoye found his. Nwoye felt unwanted, out of place,

“He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart,” (130). Chinua Achebe captured the rarely heard voices of the African tribes, in his novel Things Fall Apart, and how they coped with the Europeans colonizing their homeland. The author had shown that a dedicated person is willing to do anything

Achebe’s essay “An Image of Africa” analyzes the book Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. He dissects the false representation of the african people and the bias in his book. In “Heart Of Darkness,” Conrad feels that the people of Africa are undeveloped and they are savages; he looks at all their culture and tradition and only sees it as uncivilized, he has no appreciation for their beliefs. This relates to Achebe’s book, Things Fall Apart, because Conrad’s views represents the white colonist and their feelings towards the africans. The colonists did not respect their culture or their gods. Okonkwo is well-respected by his tribe, he is extremely traditional and values his culture. The colonists are a threat to that because they do not understand or respect the African ways, they want to change it and convert them to Christianity. Okonkwo has a need to stand up for his culture and his beliefs, he feels he has to be able to prove that he is a strong and powerful man. Okonkwo worries that if he does not protect his customs, he will be seen like his father: cowardly and feminine. He has been haunted by that fear his whole life, “It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father. Even as a little boy he had resented his father’s failure and weakness, and even now he still remembered how he had suffered when a playmate had told him that his father was agbala”(Achebe 12). His need to distinguish himself from his father and protect his people are what drive him to make do things like kill Ikemefuna and the messenger. Things fall apart for Okonkwo because the other villagers do not have the same passion and drive as him. The

In Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart Okonkwo’s identity of being a respected clansman is challenged, after the arrival of the missionaries, Achebe utilizes this to bring out the theme “a man’s violence will be his