Okonkwo's Reputation In Things Fall Apart

Since Okonkwo stood out more than all the other men he was seen as Umuofia's most powerful man. Although Okonkwo is the most powerful man in Umuofia he also has weaknesses. One of those weaknesses is his father, he doesn’t wanna be a weak man and careless like his father. As the white missionaries moved in into their home land, the Igbo people who are unsure of how to react to these traditions either switched to their ways or stayed faithful to their faith. Many people became persuaded of the new religions authorities, however Okonkwo who is an warrior at heart refuses to accept the changes that were taking place in his community.

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

The destruction of Okonkwo was revealed slowly throughout the books. He started to make some poor decisions, which became the beginning of his downfall. He killed Ikemefuna just because he didn’t want to be thought weak. He made unwise decisions to only appear to be strong and manly to others in the village. He did not realize how he lost so much from living that way. When, Okonkwo kills Ogbuefi Ezedu’s son, the real tragedy begins. Other tragic heroes usually have a steadier downfall, but Okonkwo had a direct fall in society due to this event. This puts his family into exile for seven years. After a short period of time, white missionaries arrive to Umuofia. When “The

Okonkwo continually rejected the ways of his father, who was deeply indebted to other members of Umuofia, holding no titles, to the point where Okonkwo’s “whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness” (16). He transferred his fears into the context of Umuofia and the traits that society valued, but what was really the driving force in his decisions “was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father” (17). The values of Umuofia resembled the polar opposite of what Unoka was and Okonkwo twisted his motivations around in his mind and presented them to himself and the community as derived from Umuofia’s traditions. From this delusion, Okonkwo established his ultimate goal of becoming a revered member of the village, possessing many titles, and achieving anything necessary displaying his prominence in the community.

Perhaps it becomes clearer how much of an accomplishment it is to stay oneself in unforgiving circumstances when it is shown how it can feel like it is best to just give up. At the beginning of Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo is a stern man who had to support himself from a very young age, and through his tireless work, rises up the ranks to become one of the greatest man in the Igbo village of Umuofia. Okonkwo, because of the lazy and carefree nature of his father, Unoka, has very rigid, harsh beliefs about strength and responsibility. During and after his seven-year exile from Umuofia brought on by an accidental killing, he notices a slow change coming about with the arrival of Christian missionaries from Britain, looking for converts. Eventually, the church established there becomes large enough to threaten the Umuofian religion and disrupt the villagers’ lives. Okonkwo’s identity is closely tied to his life and status in Umuofia, and the ideals

In his novel Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe introduces his readers to the Nigerian village Umuofia and its culture through the protagonist, Okonkwo, a well respected Umuofian leader. Umuofian culture is centered around pleasing and respecting spiritual life. Everything within this culture and religion has a specific order; however, the Umuofian culture ultimately reaches its demise when Evangelists arrive to convert the Umuofians to Christianity. As seen through the events that transpire in this novel, from Nwoye leaving his family to letting the osu have a place in society, religion has the potential to both build and break a society. Specifically, religion has the power to break apart families, introduce new ideas into society, and bring hope into one’s life.

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

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

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

The major aspect of culture that Okonkwo’s death illustrates is the inception of Umuofia’s traditions. Okonkwo knows that “it is an abomination of man to take his own life. It is an offense against the Earth”; he also knows that it is against the customs of Umuofia to touch a body of one who has taken his own life (Achebe 207). By bringing

The last choice Okonkwo made that lead to his downfall was killing the messenger at a meeting. The text states “He knew Umuofia would not go to war. He knew because they had let the other messengers escape (Anchebe, 215).” This shows that Okonkwo made a move and his fellow members of Umuofia didn’t make a move with him so he felt alone. After he did this the communist were looking for Okonkwo and only him so Okonkwo felt alone and betrayed.

When the new religion is brought over by the white men, Okonkwo strongly opposes to it because he felt that its qualities display weakness and would destroy the Ibo culture. He refused to change and stuck to his old ways, but as more and more of his clansmen convert, Okonkwo sees his world start to crumble. “Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer stand as one” (Achebe 176). His clan slowly divides into two clear-cut sides, but the Ibo people didn’t want to fight back the new religion. As a result, Christianity took over everything, from the government, to the judicial system. Feeling powerless, Okonkwo commits his final act of vengeance and kills a messenger, committing suicide soon after. If the Umoufia had tried to fight back Christianity, they wouldn’t have loss so much power this quickly. This reluctance was due to the absence of

For 7 years okonkwo and his family are sent to Mbanta, which begins his downfall. Upon Okonkwo’s return to Umuofia things have changed drastically. The church has grown in Umuofia and the white men had brought in a government. On top of those changes, Okonkwo has lost great power and reputation as part of his downfall. After the burning of the church it is stated that, “For the first time in many years Okonkwo had a feeling that was akin to happiness.” This hints at maybe the end of this downfall, but during a meeting with the District Commissioner, Okonkwo and his fellow Umuofia leaders are ambushed thrown in jail and abused. The reason this comes as an ambush is because they agreed to meet with the District Commissioner as friends. The men were released after paying a fine and return to their village. During yet another meeting, this one with men from all the clans nine villages, a messenger interrupts saying this message from the District Commissioner, "The white man whose power you know too well has ordered this meeting to stop." Without even flinching Okonkwo deepens his downfall by slaying the messenger with his machete. Knowing the umuofia wouldn’t go to war with him, he ran away. After news of this murder, the District Commissioner arrives at Okonkwo’s compound looking for

Okonkwo’s transition into Mbanta is so quick because Okonkwo is appalled to silence by his tragedy. All his life, Okonkwo worked to achieve power and wealth until a mere accident wiped his entire success. The broken Okonkwo arrives at Mbanta without the motivation to work and goals to achieve. Okonkwo becomes morbid because he is hurt, and allows his motherland to console him. According to Uchendu, Okonkwo is in Mbanta because “A man belongs to his fatherland when things are good and life is sweet. But when there is sorrow and bitterness he finds refuge in his motherland” (Achebe 134). Mbanta is Okonkwo’s motherland and he has arrived to take refuge in it since he is distressed. In Mbanta, prosperity and honor aren’t as important to Okonkwo as they are in Umuofia because in Mbanta, Okonkwo is too weak to yearn for success. However, when Okonkwo is in his fatherland, he is deft since life is satisfying. When Okonkwo returns to Umuofia, his tenacity returns because he heals, enters his fatherland and there are white men robbing men from the Umuofian religion. The Christians ruin the Umuofian culture which angers Okonkwo further powering

This passage, found as a conclusion to a chapter in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, takes place after Okonkwo's return to Umuofia. A new English missionary has been set up in the village and has caused a great divide between the villagers. The main purpose of the section is to describe some of these events and changes that have taken place in Umuofia since Okonkwo's return. The passage is structured in three parts, each detailing about a different aspect. The first section focuses on Okonkwo's son Nwoye's conversion to Christianity and subsequent successes. The second part goes into detail about Okonkwo's arrival home to his clan and the change in the village. Finally, the last section includes Okonkwo's inner feelings and opinions