Things Fall Apart

Nwoye’s unavoidable decision of converting cultures was lead by his search for acceptance and in hopes of escaping his immoral religion and Okonkwo’s high expectations for him as a man. Okonkwo is not satisfied with Nwoye’s sensitive and slothful personality After Ikemefuna’s unjustified death, Nwoye loses respect for Okonkwo and puts an emotional barrier between them.

“{Ikemefuna} had become wholly absorbed into his new family. He was like an elder brother to Nwoye, and from the very first seemed to have kindled a new fire in the younger boy. He made him feel grown-up, and they no longer spent the evenings in his mother's hut while she cooked, but now sat with Okonkwo in his obi, or watched him as he tapped his palm tree for the evening wine. Nothing pleased Nwoye now more than to be sent for by his mother or another of his father's wives to do one of those difficult and masculine tasks in the home, like splitting wood, or pounding food. On receiving such a message through a younger brother or sister, Nwoye would feign annoyance and grumble aloud about women and their troubles.” [38] Before Ikemefuna came into their lives, Nwoye didn’t talk to his father very much, while he usually spent most of his time helping his mother in the kitchens. He was also a very emotional and ‘weak’ little boy. “Later in the day {Okonkwo} called Ikemefuna and told him that he was to be taken home the next day. Nwoye overheard it and burst into tears, whereupon his father beat him heavily.” [41] “...Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down… As soon as his father walked in, that night, Nwoye knew that Ikemefuna had been killed, and something seemed to give way inside him, like the snapping of a tightened bow. He did

Furthermore, Okonkwo’s fear of being weak and resembling his father, forces him to act without compassion, and he suffers the “loss” of his son, Nwoye. Like Unoka, Nwoye is effeminate and sensitive. After Ikemefuna dies, Nwoye notices that he feels the same as when he saw twin babies left to die in the Evil Forest, “Then something had given way inside him [Nwoye]” (62). Nwoye is an innocent child who is baffled by the cruel rituals of his clan. He loses respect for Okonkwo and the traditions of his clan. He is unable to forgive his father for killing his adopted brother and unable to forgive his clan for allowing Okonkwo to do so. When the missionaries come to Umuofia Nwoye is intrigued by Christianity, a better way of life, where he feels relief. Strict and inflexible, Okonkwo is angered by Nwoye when he finds out that he converted to Christianity, because Nwoye abandoned their ancestors and he thinks the missionaries are effeminate. Later, Okonkwo tells his five other sons of Nwoye: “You have all seen the great abomination of your brother. Now he is no longer my son or your brother. I will only have a son who is a man, who will hold his head up among my people” (172). Okonkwo disowns his eldest son, Nwoye, because he betrays the clan. Okonkwo’s inability to be compassionate and understanding, drives Nwoye away, and he loses his eldest son.

Nwoye, the actual son of Okonkwo, was very damaged by the killing of Ikemefuna. Nwoye would've been upset over the incident, whether his father was involved with it or not, but because his father was apart of it, Nwoye used all of his frustration on his father, even though he wasn’t the only one guilty for doing the crime. Because of the death of Ikemefuna, Nwoye will never be the same emotionally because he had never had a brother like figure in his life and that was taken away. Due to his father being apart of the killing of him, the connection between Okonkwo and Nwoye has been impaired (and may lead to what Nwoye does in the next significant change). Okonkwo also was afflicted by the killing of Ikemefuna. Ogbuefi Ezeudu, an elder of the tribe highly advises him to not before he went on the walk with his son. When he made the choice of helping kill his son, it was because he wanted to fit in and didn’t want the other guys in the tribe to think less of him. “He was afraid of being thought weak,” Because of him murdering Ikemefuna, his heart becomes harder by trying to become more manly even though an elder of tribe advised against it. However, he is being more like Okonkwo’s father. Okonkwo is a role model in the tribe because of where he came from and is work ethic. He even beat the top wrestler and got more famous. The tribe also thinks that Okonkwo is becoming tougher.

In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe tells a story set during the British colonialism of Nigeria in the late 19th century. Of the descriptions that Achebe makes, one of the most significant is the British District Court officers and the egwugwu. There are several superficial similarities between the District Court officers and the egwugwu. These similarities include their relationship with the people of the culture. The egwugwu are masqueraders who impersonate the gods of the Igbo culture and settle disputes of the people of Umuofia. Most of the time the impersonators are local leaders of Umuofia. While the District Court officers work in the courts of the British Empire and settle disputes of the people and enforce the laws

Nwoye is Okonkwo’s eldest son who Okonkwo considers unforgivably emasculate and very much like his father, Unoka. As a child, Nwoye usually receives the brunt of his father’s criticism and remains feeling unwanted. Eventually, Ikemefuna comes to fill that void and Nwoye, in his adoration of his adoptive brother, begins to takes after him. Also In a take strange way, Ikemefuna fills the role of both father and brother for Nwoye, providing him with a peer to share his thoughts and a person to look up to. As Ikemefuna rubs off on Nwoye, Okonkwo begins to find more favor with both of the boys. As a result , the three begin to form an unbreakable bond, or so they thought.

It is this curiosity that separate Nwoye and his father. " Okonkwo did not answer. But he left hold of Nwoye, who walked away and never returned"(Achebe 152). Nwoye saw the missionaries as an escape from his morose family life. He uses the missionaries as an opportunity to disown his father. Although at the time he doesn't understand completely what he had gotten into he is jovial. Unlike his father, instead of planning for war. Nwoye embraces the new way. This is in his benefit he is enrolled in the school, and went as far as to change his name is

Culture collisions can have many different effects. It can lead to one's ruination or it could can lead one to do great things in the future. In Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart, The character Nwoye the son of Okonkwo is dramatically changed by the culture collision; the Ibo versus the Western Culture. He goes through a series of events that changed his life and his ways. Ultimately Nwoye's character ends up different then he started before.

However, the little manliness and good values that Nwoye could have extracted from Ikemefuna, died along with Ikemefuna when Okonkwo deals the killing blow. After the death of Ikemefuna something breaks in Nwoye. His death leaves Nwoye distraught and makes him yearn to find a reason in life to live for. This leaves Nwoye confused with his father's actions as this following quote reveals: “As soon as his father

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.

Conflicts are a part of life that will happen at some point. In “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe the characters of the story go through many conflicts. The conflicts of Nwoye, Obierika and Okonkwo demonstrate the important cultural values of the Igbo tribe. Nwoye’s conflicts give examples of the cultural values of the igbo tribe. On page 54 Achebe announces “That was the kind of the story the Nowye loved.

When I read Things Fall Apart, I had a clear mind of what a life could be like Okonkwo’s. For the rest of the reading, a question was contacting me in different places of the novel. Okonkwo was an angry man in front of his Nigerian tribe and changed when Christian missionaries came to the Ibo village; also, I responded to the book, and my personal applications to a different culture were related to a missionary trip that was a powerful one back in 1956 in Ecuador.

When one is born into a place they feel as though they do not belong it can lead them to rebel against their culture. In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Nwoye, the son of the main character does exactly this. Nwoye can be characterized as fearful and is also considered very weak by his father Okonkwo. On the other hand, Okonkwo, noted for his lack of fear unless it comes to being like his father, Unoka. Okonkwo believes that Nwoye is showing some traits similar to Unoka and is feeling “great anxiety for his incipient laziness” (Achebe 23). Nwoye’s different way of thinking and beliefs lead him to leave the clan at the first opportunity he has. The introduction of Western Culture into Umuofia affects Nwoye in a positive way because they value him and make him feel like he belongs.

Nwoye came to the conclusion that the murder of Ikemefuna, at first leaving him devastated and deeply betrayed by his father, later came to be a blessing in disguise. The terrible fate of Ikemefuna finally led to Nwoye parting with his dysfunctional family and coming to peace with himself. He proved to me, and himself, that you decide your own future, and that we do not all become our parents. The way Okonkwo did all in his power to be nothing like his father, Nwoye did the opposite to be unlike

11, para. 2). Because the village of Umuofia is widely feared, Mbaino peacefully presents a fifteen year old boy and a virgin to Umuofia as retribution for the killing, and it is decided the boy, Ikemefuna, will stay with Okonkwo until the elders decide his fate. “Ikemefuna's stay in Okonkwo's home was supposed to be a temporary arrangement -- until the clan decided what was to be done with him -- but he ended up living as a member of the family for three years” (Akwani, 2011, para. 11). Okonkwo places Ikemefuna in the home of his most senior wife, who is also the mother of Okonkwo’s oldest son, Nwoye.