Okonkwo's Response To Things Fall Apart

In the book, Things Fall Apart by. Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo goes through many changes as a character. The events that happen in the book transform him from the person he was in the first chapter. Three most important things that happened were Okonkwo rising in social status, him killing Ikemefuna, and eventually killing himself. Each of these events held a different reaction from Okonkwo When Okonkwo was 18, he rose up in social status by overpowering the Cat.

In the book “Things Fall Apart” Okonkwo has shown to be a complex character when it comes to his emotions. It’s no secret that Okonkwo hides how he’s really feeling based off his view of showing feeling is almost like being weak. Okonkwo’s temper has developed the flow of the theme based on how his beliefs on what a real man was.

In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo’s downfall was not a product of fate, but rather his desire to appear strong, not embrace change, and not open up to another culture. Okonkwo, from an early age, despised his father and hoped

Everyone in the book Things Fall Apart must make decisions throughout the book, some of these decisions are minor, while others are major. Characters also make decisions that can be good or bad, some of the decisions affected just that person, and while others affected the people they love and know. In the book, every action has a consequence, some of these make the characters’ lives better while others turn their worlds upside down. In this essay, I’m going to talk about the decision that Okonkwo made when he was younger.

Okonkwo’s demise In Things Fall Apart Okonkwo’s anger led to his demise. In the book Okonkwo’s anger, let him beat his wife, when Okonkwo was in a rage he just want to hurt and killed people, his friends always want to stop him, his anger also let him to kill the messenger. The anger always lets him to doing wrong thing over and over again.

Chinua Achebe in the book Things Fall Apart, explains Okonkwo’s battle with failure. When experienced the changes of Umfia he couldn’t live, with he makes a tragic ending. Okonkwo was the one the Ibo tribe looked up to because he was a “fearless” warrior. Okonkwo was driven to be better than his father. Okonkwo was a successful farmer by taking good care of his crops. When the missionaries came in and brought changes, Okonkwo struggled with the changes. Okonkwo’s biggest challenges was when he realized the white man changed everything. Okonkwo proved his strength to the tribe in many ways.

In the novel, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo, the hero, a warrior and a group pioneer and should never demonstrate non-abrasiveness or shortcoming. Not at all like his dad who is fainthearted and shocking man, who passed on in disgrace. In the novel, Okonkwo has numerous obligations from being a father, agriculturist, and pioneer. Be that as it may, his reality breaks apart when he needs to slaughter Ikemefuna, a kid he assumes responsibility of when his tribe wins a settlement with another tribe, and when he shoots Ogbuefi Ezeudu's 16-year old child. Which vanishes him from his tribe.

In the novel Things Fall Apart the main character, Okonkwo, makes a lot of decisions that lead to his downfall. Okonkwo is a fierce man who always has to show his dominance no matter what. He doesn’t tolerate disrespect, so he beats his wives and anyone who decides to go against him. Also he is afraid of looking weak in front of his clansmen so he does something he will regret in the book. All the decisions he made throughout the book catch up to him in the end.

Everything in Okonkwo’s life slowly started to fall apart then it grew and grew until everything in his life just broke into pieces. His family has fallen as his son is has turned into a christian, his daughter is left with no strong man to marry and he has killed the one child that he loved. His tribe has fallen apart since some of them have turned into christians and has abandoned their ibo traditions, and the white men have took over and formed their own government. Then finally His mind and spirit started to fall apart, as his fear of being called a coward consumed him and forced him to show that he wasn’t a coward. His fear consumed him so much, that when everything was falling apart, he felt no reason to try and show that he wasn’t a coward.

There are many changes that are going to happen in a lifetime that one must either accept or reject. In the novel,” Things Fall Apart”, Chinua Achebe uses protagonist, Okonkwo’s unwavering loyalty to the Ibo tribe and culture and his resistance to the impending European influences to shape the theme “traditions binds people together but can also tear them apart.” At the beginning of the novel, Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and was honored for beating Amalinze the Cat in a wrestling competition. After beating Amalinze the Cat, Okonkwo’s “fame rested on solid personal achievements… [and] he bought honor to his village…”(1). One personal achievement of Okonkwo is his successful farming.

In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, the character Okonkwo was affected greatly by the cultural collision of the christian and ibo cultures. He could did not want to adapt to the changes and changed greatly because of the changes. Before the cultural collision Okonkwo is a very stern and is not the person that shows his emotions. He is strict with his family and even the slightest thing like a cut banana tree leaf set him off.

Okonkwo’s life is the main thing that is falling apart, at the beginning of the book Okonkwo tells how he started from nothing a built his way up to a great man. Okonkwo was going to hoping on becoming the next leader of his village. His life falls apart because he disobeys the gods, this is why his life is falling apart. He helps in the murder of Ikemefuna( a boy whom Okonkwo took under his wing and was a better son than his actual son).

In Umuofia’s esoteric civilization, the people share a general and substantial belief in a God and religion. Some people, like Okonkwo and his family, respect the Gods and go to them for wisdom: “…and offered prayers to them on behalf of himself, his three wives and eight children.” (Achebe, 14). Okonkwo seeks guidance from the Gods so they can receive mirth for his obedience to them. The guidance he looks for shapes him as a character, since he will do anything his Gods ask of him to do. However, other people of the society contain great fear of their deities: “It was deeper and more intimate than the fear of evil and capricious gods…” (13). The people sometimes feared their gods because they feared their gods were malevolent and would do

In this novel Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, there are many symbolic meanings that are taking place in this novel. One of those things is that Okonkwo death is symbolic of the death of the whole culture or was it an individual’s refusal to change for society. My opinion is that it is a symbol of the death of the whole culture. My reason are because he refuse to change like everyone else around him, he doesn’t like the change and tries to stay strong for his culture and he killed himself because he couldn’t stop the change from everyone .

In his anger he had forgotten that it was the Week of Peace.(p.25). After this incident, Okonkwo lost much respect from the clan because it was the first time in many years that anyone had committed an nso-ani as Okonkwo did. Okonkwos final violent action caused by his temper was when the messenger for the missionaries proclaimed that the tribal meeting being held must stop. Okonkwo cut the messengers head off, He knew that Umuofia would not go to war. He knew it because they had let the other messengers escape.(.178). Okonkwo did this out of fury and frustration that his tribe was changing so obediently. This was Okonkwos final action because it basically forced him to kill himself or be hung. Okonkwos raging temper was a trait that caused life to be harder for him. It may have made him be seen as a strong, powerful man, but it worked against him at critical times to cause things to fall apart for him.