Okonkwo's Greatest Battle: Things Fall Apart

“He had a large barn full of yams and he had three wives. And now he was going to take the Idemili title, the third highest in the land” (12). Okonkwo was a successful man in his culture and lands far beyond Umuofia. He was prideful of what he had accomplished from a very young age, his culture meant everything to him as he had made his way to the top. He had everything he ever needed, the honor, he was a warrior, and he had made it to the top from absolutely nothing that his own father did for him. Sadly, towards the end of the book, Okonkwo had broken clan rules on purpose and killed himself. “Then they came to the tree from which Okonkwo’s body was dangling, and they stopped dead.” (Achebe 207). In this quote, it explains that Okonkwo had hung himself on the tree killing himself even though it went against everything he believed in; bravery, customs, and masculinity. Okonkwo’s personal pride was his response to the cultural collision because he was to stubborn to change his culture. He had shown resistance but also went against the clan rules. Okonkwo’s response to the colonizers shapes the meaning of the work as a whole by his suicide signifying things falling apart since it was the first time he purposely had broken the clan law. This shows that he had been struggling with any type of change in the book and finally he couldn’t adapt to any change. He was a

In the novel, Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, Achebe is trying to convey the theme that excessive pride has the potential to be catastrophic. Achebe conveys this theme by using characters, structure, and Okonkwo as the tragic hero. The District Commissioner, Okonkwo, Enoch, and Mr. Brown are all prideful men and all of them have the potential to succumb to pride; however, pride can only wreak havoc if the person yields to it. The District Commissioner commits immoral acts because of his egotism and similarly, Enoch is the start of the conflict between the clan and the church because of his arrogance. In addition, Okonkwo is the tragic hero, who has a devastating end due to his inability to resist pride,

Okonkwo may try to act “manly” and strong when in the presence of others, but Okonkwo does possess sentimental emotions that he claims to view as weak which make up an

In the book Things Fall Apart, there are many things that fall apart. The major aspect that fell apart is the clan. There are many major foreshadowing events that showed the decline of the clan, including the locusts, the accidental death of a boy by Okonkwo forcing the exile of his family, and the arrival of the white missionaries. When the missionaries arrive, they start to oppress their religion onto the people of the clan. They are seemed to be crazy, and almost disrespectful of the clan’s customs on religion. As this is happening, Okonkwo is caught in an exile for him and his three wives and children. The exile is caused by an accidental killing of a boy by Okonkwo. After they return to Umuofia after seven years, they are blindsided by

In the novel Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo is portrayed as a respected and determined individual whose fatal flaw eventually works against him. Throughout the novel the readers are shown that Okonkwo has many of these Characteristics because he is obsessed with the idea of becoming just like his father. This becomes his flaw in the novel that puts him into exile and makes it hard for him to adjust to the changes that were made with in his village.

Things Fall Apart tells the story of Okonkwo, a tribal African yam farmer, through trials and tribulations that change both him and his tribe. The Umuofia clan values traits such as strength, confidence, crop success, and honor. Okonkwo exemplifies everything that the clan wants in a man, and he was well aware of it. He thrives on being the antithesis of the image of his father, Unoka, who was viewed as considerably more feminine and generally a failure because of his failed harvests and love of the flute. Nwoye, Okonkwo’s son, is also considerably more feminine, and therefore lesser, in the eyes of his father. Okonkwo compensated for the failure in his blood line by putting on a front of hyper-masculine fervor; something that leads him down many troublesome roads. While Things Fall Apart is a tale of many things, Okonkwo’s struggle with femininity causes many of the major conflicts the story. Okonkwo’s learned opposition to feminine traits causes him to project machismo in order to cover up for the underlying feminine qualities that he has and is fearful of.

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

At one of his breaking points he killed a missionary in front of the whole clan with his machete and just walked away.(151) Okonkwo believed the reasons of his setbacks were not because of him, but it was because of the White Men, who he believed corrupted everyone to join him had corrupted his chi in a different way. He didn’t think at all it was his fault that his chi had gone bad and had stopped his progression of becoming the best and strongest of the clan. Okonkwo had given up on his life because of the Western ideas, he believed in the old ways and their traditions not these new ideas, he was pressured and pressured himself to the point where he had ended his own

Throughout the story of Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the author portrays Okonkwo as the tribes’ strongest warrior to a disgrace of the Ibo people. The author exposes Okonkwo negatively through his journey from earning a good reputation to a sudden extreme downfall. After not agreeing with the western ways and noticing he cannot turn the tribe back, Okonkwo kills himself which is why Okonkwo is the character most affected by cultural collision.

To the reader of Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo is the most important character in the book as he is the main character and all occurrences revolve around his life. Okonkwo’s life doesn’t just encompass one paragraph of one chapter, it is contained in an entire book. To the District Commissioner, Okonkwo is no one of consequence, just somebody who tried to escape punishment by committing suicide. For this reason, the District Commissioner thinks that Okonkwo deserves only one paragraph that would make him known solely as a “man who had killed a messenger and hanged himself”

One of the ways that the pressure to be masculine affected Okonkwo was that it made him cruel towards his wives and children. His family was frightened by him and how quickly he would

In the novel novel Things Fall Apart, the author, Chinua Achebe, wants the character Okonkwo to be viewed as a highly masculine and strict brute. Throughout the novel there are glimpses of the harsh qualities that Okonkwo possesses that start to break. When Okonkwo is exiled to his mother's tribe, he noticed the vast differences between the two. He noticed how feminine and cowardice their actions are, so he starts to easy up and gets a little sense of when to be how he is usually and when to be how the people in his mother's tribe are. Although he starts making changes to how he is as a person, he quickly realizes how weak it makes him look and how weak his mother's tribe is. When the Christians started moving into his mother's tribe, the people of the tribe wanted discuss or compromise with them, but Okonkwo had other ideas. When talking to the council Okonkwo says, “ Let us not reason like cowards… If a man comes into my hut and defecates on the floor, what do I do? Do I shut my eyes? No! I take a stick and break his head” (158). This quote shows how the author wants

In “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe is a book that represents the causes and effects and the best and the worst of the main character, Okonkwo. Throughout the novel, Okonkwo always displays being brave yet being harsh with people and himself. Okonkwo displays his personality various times throughout the novel. Because his behavior, a lot of events take a major turn in the novel. His pride in his tribe/religion, the act of keeping titles, and trying not to become his father, are three reasons of why he acts the way he is.

Some of the villagers, including Okonkwo, wanted to organize an uprising against the village. He even executes one of the white men. After he does , he understands that the other villages have changed excessively. They won't help him battle the white men off. Not able to live with his disclosure, Okonkwo commits suicide. This is an important part in the novel, because according to Okonkwo's traditional beliefs committing suicide is considered to one of the greatest sin. Okonkwo's desperation about his changing village is stunning in the event that it can exceed his strict adherence to the traditional

Okonkwo is a strong and confident man who has vowed to never be like his father Unoka. His father was lazy, unsuccessful and carried no titles. The relationship between Okonkwo and his father motivated Okonkwo to gain titles and become successful inside the clan. In this sense, Okonkwo has gained many titles, has three wives, and respected by the clan. Okonkwo chose to feel that identity in the clan was most important, and through this he had become a presence in the clan, noticed by the elders. However after the arrival of missionaries, who had come to convert the clans to Christianity, Okonkwo’s view is completely contradicted by the missionaries. Okonkwo had grown accustomed to members of the clan being ranked by certain tiers, while the