Okonkwo's Failure

The main character is so focused on becoming a great man, the opposite image of his father, that he forgets to be a good man. He is an abusive husband, beating his wives unnecessarily. He proves to be a cruel and calculating father, playing favorites with his children, and dismissing them when they displease him. He does everything with a heavy hand, and these methods work for him until they cease to. That day comes when he accidentally kills someone and is banished from the village. But, of course, problems had arisen even before this incident. When Ikemefuna dies, even Okonkwo’s best friend, Obierika warns him against his own clear folly, saying “If I were you I would have stayed at home. What you have done will not please the Earth. It is the kind of action for which the goddess wipes out

John F. Kennedy once said, “There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction”. Former president Kennedy proclaims his view on the value and importance of taking action over remaining inactive. Although he is respected and followed by society, others do not all share this same value. In Chinua Achebe’s

The novel, Things Fall Apart, takes place in a Lower Nigerian village of Iguedo and Mbanta and is centered around a man by the name of Okonkwo. Okonkwo, the protagonist, is introduced as the most renowned warrior of all tribes who brought great honor to his tribe by becoming the top wrestler of the villages. Throughout the book, Chinua Achebe expresses Okonkwo as a man whose obsession with power is what ultimately leads him to failing in attempts to obtain that power through his role as a farmer, the actions towards his family, and his actions towards the new civilization of the village. When introducing the protagonist, Achebe makes Okonkwo’s thirst for power and status very apparent not just through his

The last decision that Okonkwo made that affected his life and the lives of others was when he killed the messenger during his meeting and later decided to commit suicide. During his meeting, Okonkwo and other men were speaking about a war against the Christians when a messenger sent by the white man went to stop the meeting. Okonkwo quickly took out his machete and killed the messenger hoping that the people of Umuofia would support him, but they did not and let the other messengers escape. From this quote we see that Okonkwo killed the messenger to make a statement against the white invaders and was hoping for the whole clan to support him. Since the clan did not go to war and believing that it was now too late, he commits the ultimate action

Iguedo (the village Okonkwo inhabits) receives two sacrifices from a neighboring clan, a young man and a virgin, to compensate for the murder of a daughter from Iguedo. Ikemefuna, the young man, stays in Okonkwo’s household, where he indirectly bestows Nwoye with the opportunity to communicate (without fear) with his father. However, when Okonkwo returns to his household after partaking in the murder of the sacrifice, “a vague chill had descended on [Nwoye] and his head had seemed to swell, like a solitary walker at night who passes an evil spirit on the way” (62). The murder of Ikemefuna decimates the chance of Nwoye and Okonkwo having any form of closeness, especially because Nwoye—having grown up and acquired intelligence and insight—senses evil in Okonkwo. Because Okonkwo tenaciously refuses to express his feelings of remorse (to him, masculinity triumphs morality), the damage imposed on their relationship has no way of fixing itself. His self-absorbed mind fails to realize that Nwoye sees him in a different light; Didato elaborates that parents “are often oblivious to the most important signals of

With the help of a boy by the name of Ikemefuna, who is taken to live with Okonkwo as a result of a deal with another clan that is soon turned around. Ikemefuna began “to feel like a member of Okonkwo’s family” and he and Nwoye “had become so deeply attached to each other” due to the fact Ikemefuna seem to know everything (41). With the help of Ikemefuna, Nwoye soon changed into the liking of his father and grew “into a tough young man” (57). Things then take a turn for the worst when the village of Umuofia decides that the fate of Ikemefuna is death. When Nwoye's father got back from walking Ikemefuna “home”, Nwoye already knew what had happened and “something had given way inside him” (Achebe 66). He questioned everything that haunted him, like the “twins crying in the bush (which he questioned ever since he saw twins in a little basket in the forest) and the question of Ikemefuna who was killed”

He rejects his father’s way of respecting women and forces his beliefs on his sons. Okonkwo explains that despite one’s achievements, he is not truly a man unless he can control his women and children. To enforce this, Okonkwo shares stories with his sons about violence. Nwoye tries to feign interest to impress his father but loves more feminine stories in his heart. Okonkwo’s forcing of hypermasculinity may take away Nwoye’s and Ikemefuma’s individuality in the future. As the plot thickens, Okonkwo tries to mold Nwoye into what his father was not because Okonkwo wants Nwoye to have a prosperous future and only knows how to achieve this from violence and brusqueness.

The novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe tells the story of Okonkwo, an African man of great importance in his clan, being forced to face a loss of his titles and prestige in exile, and the arrival of British colonists. Things Fall Apart focuses on a central idea of change and coping with it. In the beginning of the book Okonkwo is established as a character who is very capable of overcoming adversity, as shown by his becoming a man of great titles even though he had a lazy father and started with nothing. All of part one of the book is dedicated to establishing what is normal for Okonkwo and his clan and just how important and high ranking he is. In this part he also faces an important change in his life. He is given a child to look after

Okonkwo’s actions, for example, when he killed Ikemefuna and then the messenger for the Christians, shows the reader that Okonkwo cares more about his image. Ikemefuna was a teen that was taken from his family in a neighboring clan and brought to Umuofia as a sacrifice. “Dazed

Okonkwo’s family have to open their doors to the boy and soon enough Okonkwo becomes fond of him, and the boy looks up to Okonkwo and considers him as a second father. It is eventually pronounced by the Oracle of Umuofia that the boy must be killed. The oldest man in the village, Ezeudu, warns Okonkwo that he should have nothing to do with the murder because it would be like killing his own child. But Okonkwo participates in the murder despite the warning from Ezeudu to avoid seeming weak, and in fact, Okonkwo strikes the killing blow even when Ikemefuna begs him for protection. Okonkwo feels guilty and saddened by this for many days after killing

Things Fall Apart is an example encompasses the life, nature, and traditional culture of Africans. Chinua uses Okonkwo, a fierce and champion fighter, to show how Africans led their life with regards to the way they observed traditions, lived in harmony with each other and worked hard to provide food for their families. For instance, when the gods desire the life of Ikemefuna, the village boy whom the Umuofia village had been given in a debt settlement

Chinua Achebe, the author of Things Fall Apart, portrays the significant characteristics of a powerful leader who has yet made some decisions that lead him to his inevitable self- destruction. Okonkwo, the protagonist of the story, ended up losing everything that ever mattered him. He saw no need to keep living an empty life which was once full of joy, wealth, and family. Through his leadership, fear, and exile Okonkwo is portrayed as the stereotypical Tragic Hero.

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,

African praise songs often simultaneously praise and criticize the intended person. The same is true of Things Fall Apart. This novel presents both positive and negatives aspects of Okonkwo. Since we tend to see Okonkwo as representing his society, we can say that Things Fall Apart both celebrates and critically appraises the culture whose tensions and contradictions he embodies.

"Change is hard because people overestimate the value of what they have- and underestimate the value of what they may gain by giving that up."- James Belasco and Ralph Stayer. In the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the main character, Okonkwo, commits suicide because he cannot cope with the changes taking place within his tribe. His decision came from feeling trapped because he not only feared change, but also failure and weakness.