Things Fall Apart

In the book “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe, we see the effect the white missionaries had on an African tribe and the antihero Okonkwo. The main character Okonkwo is a tragic hero. Achebe depicts Okonkwo as a Shakespearean hero with a tragic flaw, that tragic flaw is the fact that he will do anything in his power not to be a weak man like his father Unoka. Okonkwo did what he did because he hated his father and would do anything in his power to be the exact opposite of his father.

Based off the book Things Fall Apart, the videos we watched in class, and the poem “The White Man’s Burden”, the white man’s burden of spreading Christianity was more harmful than helpful. In both the book and the film the African Tribes were already fully functional as a whole. They had systems in place such as forms of government, art, social systems, and economic systems. After the whites came to convert them, things started to fall apart and become chaotic.

The world is filled with many different types of societies and cultures. This is due to the fact that many people share dissimilar beliefs and ideas, as well as diverse ways of life. People lived under different circumstances and stipulations, therefore forming cultures and societies with ideas they formulated, themselves. These two factors, society and culture, are what motivate people to execute the things that they do. Many times, however, society and culture can cause downgrading effects to an assemblage if ever it is corrupt or prejudiced. Society and culture not only influences the emotions individuals have toward things like age differences, religion, power, and equality but also the actions they perform as a result.

On the other hand, another characteristic of Okonkwo that causes him to be seen as a tragic hero is his struggle to deal with the crumbling Igbo culture around him. Upon his return to Umuofia from his motherland, everything has changed among the Igbo people. The white men had completely torn apart a culture which at one point seemed to be so strong. Some had even been converted into Christians and almost everyone was questioning their own beliefs. According to Stephen Criswell, when Okonkwo returned, he had a decision to make between standing up for what he believed in and against what he hated, or complying with the white man’s way and being like everyone else in the tribe(Criswell). Unlike the others, Okonkwo would not back down, and that is why he is a hero. The Igbo culture was slowly being destroyed by the

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a novel about a man in West Africa. It tells about his triumphs and trial ultimately leading to his demise. It explains how the “white man” came into his country and took over. It show you how the “white man” mad things fall apart.

First, Okonkwo starts off as a poor child, as shown when the book states, “Okonkwo did not have the start in life which many young men usually had, he did not inherit a barn from his father. There was no barn to inherit” showing that Okonkwo and his family were penurious, compared to others in the Igbo tribe (Achebe 16). Eventually, through his hard work and effort, he became a noble leader, which emphasizes his role as a tragic hero. Throughout the story Okonkwo goes through many challenges, but “In the face of futility, however, he maintains his nobility of character”(Gaydosik).

The novel Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe is a story about personal beliefs, customs and also about conflict. There is struggle between family and within culture and it also deals with the concept of culture and the notion of the values and traditions within a culture. The word culture is Latin and means to cultivate. To cultivate has several meanings; it can mean to plow, fertilize, raise and plant, to win someone’s friendship, woo and take favor with, to ingratiate oneself with, to better, refine, elevate, educate, develop and enrich. In Things Fall Apart all these words are accurate in describing the culture of Umuofia. A culture is an

In the book things fall apart by chinua achebe is a story about a culture that is exiled from the world and faces people from a different part of the world and shows how different they both are and similar to each other. Okonkwo doesn’t trust these strange men but can’t do anything because he has been exiled from his village due to him killing a clansman. The authors purpose is to show us how different people of different culture react to each others cultures and consequences from them meeting and to see how these people think of each other’s cultures. Okonkwo and his village come across the white men and don’t know how to deal with their beliefs and culture and let them settle outside their village in the evil forest. Cultural beliefs can have

Everyone encounters some type of conflict sometime during their life, but no one deals with it in the same way. The way that you handle being in or dealing with a conflict can help determine if it ultimately has a positive or negative impact on you and those around you. There are also several different ways that one can get into a conflict. One type of conflict is man versus self.

New Insight Into the Culture Things Fall Apart gave me a new perspective on the life of Africans before and during European colonization. I could relate to the life of Okonkwo and gained new insight on him when he shot at his second wife, Ekwefi. Okonkwo's fit of rage lead him to be impulsive and this was something I could relate to.

In 1958, Chinua Achebe, originally named Albert Achebe and recipient of Nigeria’s National Merit Award, published a novel titled Things Fall Apart. In this novel, colonialism is effectively depicted in the Igbo society through the perspective of Okonkwo, the protagonist. Moreover, in the Igbo society, changes were seen in certain aspects of their lives like in their customs, beliefs, and religion. I will explain self-created interpretations based on how both colonists and Malcolm X’s followers could have read and interpreted the text differently.

Within the novel, Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, a tragic tale is told of Okonkwo, a leader, and provincial wrestling titleholder of a fictional community known as Umuofia. Set in Nigeria, the story does involve the actual tribes’ people of the Igbo, and uses Okonkwo, his family, and the tragedies that happen to him, to reveal the superstitious and traditional lifestyle of these people. It also shows how the earliest attempts of Christianity conversion and the colonialism attempts of the British begin to negatively affect this culture and its values. To begin with, Okonkwo tries to escape from all association with his deceased father, Unoka, who was known to be weak and cowardly.

In Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart we meet Umofia’s greatest wrestler and warrior alive – Okonkwo. Things seems to be alright until Okonkwo accidentially kills a clansman and his life begins to fall apart. He is facing a very tragic fate and that depends on three factors. Okonkwo’s fear of weakness and failure leads him to death.

Answer: In Chinua Achebe’s novel “Things Fall Apart” Okonkwo is a tragic hero. Aristotle’s Poetics defines a Tragic Hero as a good man of high status who displays a tragic flaw ‘hamartia’ and experiences a dramatic reversal ‘peripeteia’, as well as an intense moment of recognition ‘anagnorisis’. Okonkwo is a leader and hardworking member of the Igbo community of Umuofia whose tragic flaw is his great fear of weakness and failure. Okonkwo’s fall from grace in the Igbo community and eventual suicide, makes Okonkwo a tragic hero by Aristotle’s definition.

Women are often thought of as the weaker, more vulnerable of the two sexes. Thus, women’s roles in literature are often subdued and subordinate. In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, women are repressed by an entrenched structure of the social repression. Women suffer great losses in this novel but, also in certain circumstances, hold tremendous power. Achebe provides progressively changing attitudes towards women’s role. At first glance, the women in Things Fall Apart may seem to be an oppressed group with little power and this characterization is true to some extent. However, this characterization of Igbo women reveals itself to be prematurely simplistic as well as limiting, once