Thematic Essay Things Fall Apart

Upon an initial reading of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, it is easy to blame the demise of Okonkwo’s life and of the Umofia community on the imperialistic invasions of the white men. After all, Okonkwo seemed to be enjoying relative peace and happiness before then. He did have a few mishaps; one of them resulted in him being exiled for eight years. Nonetheless, he returned to his home town with high spirits and with prospects of increased success. However, everything has changed. The white men have brought with them a new religion and a new government. Okonkwo’s family falls apart. The men in his village lose their courage and valor; they do not offer any resistance to the white men. Consequently, Okonkwo kills

Following Okonkwo’s seven year exile, the village Okonkwo once knew has changed due to the influence of Christianity and the influence of the British missionaries and officers. Okonkwo’s initial reaction is to arm the clan against the Colonisers and drive the British people out of Igbo.

Change is a reoccurring theme throughout history. It destroys and creates. It displaces and introduces. It can cause death and life. The movement of imperialism in Africa brought great change to the native tribal life. Forcing the indigenous people to turn away from their century-old traditions caused violent rifts between the European settlers and the tribes, as well as internal problems between once amiable members of the Ibo culture. With the introduction of the foreign Western Society in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, the tribe’s life and ideals are drastically altered as the new ethics and principles collide with the old traditions and laws, causing the members of the society to either adapt or be crushed underneath the foot of colonialism. Achebe’s character, Okonkwo, was impacted immensely by the cultural collision, as his previous way of life was pulverized before his eyes, and he found no reason to live any longer.

The disparity between Okonkwo’s true motivations and his warped motivations lead Okonkwo to behave in ways which shocked other members of Umuofia with his apparent disregard for others, but which made sense to him as he saw weakness and Unoka in alternatives. When Ezeudu, a respected elder in Umuofia, informed Okonkwo that the village Oracle called for the killing of Okonkwo’s adopted son Ikemefuna, he asked Okonkwo not to take part. However, Okonkwo not only accompanied them,

Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, presents the result of colonization of the Ibo people by the European missionaries. The Ibo culture is threatened to change by the European influence. Villagers are divided between resisting a new lifestyle or embracing it for better opportunities in society. The struggle to keep Ibo traditions alive is reflected in Okonkwo and Obierika’s relationship to one another. Okonkwo represents the resistance of change by keeping traditional values in high regard while, Obierika signifies the openness to opportunity by questioning the current Ibo values. The arrival of European missionaries persuades the exchange of traditional Ibo methods, customs, and community for Christianity, resulting in the community to fall apart.

This novel is the definitive tragic model about the dissolution of the African Ibo culture by Nigerian author, Chinua Achebe. Okonkwo, a great and heroic leader, is doomed by his inflexibility and hubris. He is driven by fear of failure.

“In the end Oduche died and Aneto was taken to Umuru and hanged. The other people were released, but even now they have not found the mouth with which to tell of their suffering,”. This short quote is from one of the most influential characters of the book Things Fall Apart and provides a vast irony in his own identity. Obierika’s sense of identity changed over the course of the book and, although he did not have a largely influenced role in said novel, he shaped the story’s protagonist and seemed to have more tolerance towards the Westerners “occupying” the Igbo tribe. Obierika was a man of compromise who still held true to his culture, but that was displaced when the death of his closest friend is caused by the Western changes going on around

Unlike the other leaders, Okonkwo lies awake, thinking of his revenge towards the Christian church. He began to think of war, if Umuofia decides on war towards the Christian church, all would be well. But if the Ibo’s chose to become cowards he would go alone, and avenge himself. Okonkwo states, “Isike will never forget how we slaughter them in the war, we killed twelve of their men and they kill only two of ours, before the end of the fourth market week they were suing for peace, those were days when men were men” (chapter 24 page. 200). Okonkwo makes that statement to describe that the clansmen of Umuofia should not be afraid of death, but yet let their enemies be afraid of the bloodshed of their own death. He believes that going into war with the Christian church would not only help maintain his vengeance, but also provide the fact that he was not afraid, but only became fearsome even more when entering into battles. The town crier held a meeting at the market place to discuss to beginning of war to all the clansmen of Umuofia. Once the meeting became settle, five court messengers from the church enter the market place and order the meeting to stop. The man who has spoken out of the five messengers was slit by the head with Okonkwo’s machete. The drip of blood that has lain on his machete is wiping away with the sand on the ground. With the one of the court messenger

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

Loss of control is also another important theme. In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo shows to have complete control over his family. He consistently beats them and is hard on them and they are afraid and respect him. His eldest son Nwoye is abused most often since he reminds Okonkwo so much of his grandfather and is not the son he would wish him to be. Eventually Nwoye leaves and this shows that Okonkwo does not still have full control of his family. Also his is demonstrated in the village as a whole. When the Europeans came in, they did not look at the Ibo culture as ideal and pursued in converting it. At first there was not enough Christians to really impact their society, but as they built and expanded, they influenced others and soon they had many followers. The elders of the tribes were no longer in control and the Ibo culture was losing its significance.

Of Imperialism, English writer and composer Anthony Burgess once said, “Colonialism. The enforced spread of the rule of reason. But who is going to spread it among the colonizers?”. In Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe chronicles the life of underdog turned successful clansman Okonkwo, as well as the complexity of the Ibo culture in pre-colonial Africa. With the arrival of British missionaries, Okonkwo’s world crumbles as their cultures clash, and more African people begin to join the church. The Ibo people at first greatly underestimate the power of the colonizers, yet they make a deep and lasting impact on their culture. These missionaries completely change the lives of the Ibo people. Achebe’s main message is to communicate this clash of

“Does the white man understand our custom about land?” “How can he when he does not even speak our tongue? But he says that our customs are bad” (Achebe 176). The author, through the conversation between Obierika and Okonkwo, who is a protagonist of the book, points out the irony of depreciating other culture despite being unacquainted with it. Moreover, he also emphasizes ignorance and insensitivity of Europeans over Africans by mentioning about the District Commissioner, who plans to write a book after discovering death of Okonkwo, “He had already chosen the title of the book, after much thought : The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger” (Achebe 209).

Achebe uses the Ibo fear of white society to prove how fear can tear apart a society, by causing individual submission and destruction. The Ibo had heard myths about the white men which lead to their initial fear. The quote “But I am greatly afraid. We have heard stories about white men who made the powerful guns and strong drinks and took slaves across the seas, but no one thought the stories were true.” was Okonkwo’s friend Obierika discussing the fear that he now had of the white men, after learning stories about their practices. This illustrates how fear can lead to the crumbling of society because when the Ibo fear the white men and the uncertain myths they have heard about them, it leads to submission through fear of a superior power.

Chinua Achebe’s novel “Things Fall Apart” chronicles the life of Okonkwo, a strong man whose existence is dominated by fear and anger, and the Ibo tribe, a people deeply rooted in cultural belief and tradition. As events unfold, Okonkwo’s carefully constructed world and the Ibo way of life collapses. The story of Okonkwo’s fall from a respected and feared leader of the Ibo tribe to an outcast who dies in disgrace dramatizes his inability to evolve beyond his personal beliefs, affecting the entire Ibo tribe beyond measure. The “things” that fall apart in Achebe’s novel are Okonkwo’s life – his ambition, dreams, family unity and material wealth – and the Ibo way of life – their beliefs, culture and values.

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