Things Fall Apart Quote Analysis

Throughout Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart, it is made very apparent how much the main character, Okonkwo, values manliness. Despite the fact that Okonkwo lived quite a few centuries ago, his story still shares some similarities with the way men today are pressured to be masculine. Okonkwo’s desire to be masculine affects him by causing him to be violent towards his family, view women as lesser than him, and produce a view that men shouldn’t have emotions. In the end, this desire causes his downfall, eventually causing him to take his own life.

Status. Social hierarchy. Importance in the world. These three words all mean the same thing, in their own respective ways. Whether it be the number of yams in one’s barn, or the number of Ferraris in their garage, they are both indicative of how successful one is.

Another especially important lesson is if two people are neighbors they should be civil and help each other out; if one refuses to help, karma will come to get him. Overall this lesson is to respect all people despite their difference and always help if you can. In the book this lesson is taught and introduced by Nwakibie, who is a successful and rich elder, with the proverb, “Let the kite perch and let the eagle perch too. If one says no to the other, let his wing break.” (19) A few pages later Okonkwo asks for yam seeds from Nwakibie in an attempt to start up his own farm.

“When he walked, his heels hardly touched the ground and he seemed to walk on springs, as if he was going to pounce on somebody. And he did pounce on people quite often. He had a slight stammer and whenever he was angry and could not get his words out quickly enough, he would use his fists.”(p. 1-2). It is clear that Okonkwo has anger issues and can be very violent, but where does all of this anger instead of him come from? It comes from childhood, him watching his father constantly struggle, borrow things that he knew he could not give back, and constantly being a failure. Okonkwo knew that this was the kind of man he would refuse to be, therefor, he worked extremely hard for what he had gained in his lifetime. Okonkwo grew up to make a name

Writer Ernest Hemingway once said “ When writing a novel a writer should create living people, not characters. A character is a caricature. This quote reminds me and associates with the story Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. The essential character in the story is named Okonkwo. The author Chinua was trying to show a point that he wanted to prove through this story. He wanted to prove that there are such things as cultural collisions. A cultural collision refers to when people of various cultures live/work with each other and the issues their different culture/backgrounds provide. The cultural collision was that two cultures thought that their culture was right and good for everyone and that everyone should believe in it. They didn’t like what everyone else had to say so they just quit listening to them.

In the novel Things Fall Apart, the use of violence in Ibo culture was fairly frequent, especially among the men in the village. In the Ibo village of Umuofia, it was obvious that the men rule the household with a heavy hand, meaning if they felt a beating was necessary they would carry it out with full force. In chapter four of the novel, Okonkwo’s youngest wife decided to plait her hair at a friend’s house. When she did not come home early enough to cook the afternoon meal and failed to ask another wife to feed her children, Okonkwo decided to take it upon himself to give her a hefty beating. The fact that it was supposed to be the Week of Peace did not stop him. The reality that the men take it upon themselves and are expected to control

Okonkwo is also incredibly aggressive. He regularly physically abuses his nuclear family and does so to make himself seem more masculine. His violence in order to protect his fragile masculinity goes to the extent that “his wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper.” (2.12) After the missionaries arrive in Umuofia and Okonkwo’s

The scene I chose to illustrate appears in chapter 25, page 147. The text says, “Then they came to a tree from which Okonkwo’s body was dangling, and they stopped dead.” I chose to draw the image of Okonkwo’s dead limp body hanging from a tree because it is a great example of the books name, Things Fall Apart. This dramatic ending summarizes all of the disjointed things in Okonkwo’s life. Throughout the book, things kept on going wrong for Okonkwo, getting kicked out of his village, the Europeans coming and spreading their religion, his son Nwoye joining them behind his back, and many more unfortunate happenings. All of these situations led to the unexpected ending of Okonkwo taking his own life. Therefore this is my favorite scene in Things

His status and behavior in Umuofia made many people uncertain of his action, especially in the start. In early chapters, it mentioned Okonkwos disliking to weakness comes form his father. He wants to come off as strong, and that caused him to live with a violent nature, “He had a slight stammer and whenever he was angry and could not get his words out quickly enough, he would use his fist” (4).This quote shows how Okonkwo is harsh and is not patient enough to wait for any explanations. His violent ways causes others in the village to dislike his ways and believes he deserves what is coming to

Charles Conan Belandres Mrs. Smith English 10H 12/6/15 EA #2 In the novel Things Fall Apart by Chineau Achebe, the main character is named Okonkwo. Around the middle of the storyline he mistakenly shoots and kills an innocent boy, who also happens to be one of the powerful leaders’ son.

As a result he thinks that he can do as he pleases. His temper is a major issue, “He had a slight stammer and whenever he was angry and could not get words out quickly, enough, he would use his fist. ”(Achebe, 4). Okonkwo is a great leader, but sometimes his temper gets the best of him. Okonkwo also has a problem with controlling his own life, “But his whole life was dominated by fear of failure and of weakness.

“tradition is what is in the heart and soul of your home, your country, and social environment. Tradition evolves, and it changes regardless of what you do to maintain it.” - George Blake. Blake saw that change happens no matter how hard you try to stop it. Most people in this world have a difficult time adjusting to the fact that things don’t always stay the same.

Okonkwo’s merciless violence gave him the appearance of being impenetrable. His brutality in the book categorized him as emotionless and callous. His drive to become greater than his father meant he cared only about himself and his own success. Okonkwo beat his own son, Nwoye, for fear he was growing lazy like

Okonkwo life is “dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness” (Achebe 13). When Okonkwo was a boy, his playmates teased him calling, saying that his father was agbala. Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, was lazy. He did not work on his farm; he died in great debt. He did not acquire a single title. He did not have a barn to pass down to his son. Unoka is a type of man who is scorned in Umofia. He is seen as weak and effeminate. As Okonkwo grows older, he is determined not become a failure like his father. His father was weak; he will be strong. His father was lazy; he will be hard-working. Okonkwo earned his fame by defeating the reigning wrestling champion. Okonkwo diligently plants yam, building a successful farm. He builds himself an obi, has three wives and many children. His fame “rested on solid personal achievements” (Achebe 3). Okonkwo will not let one womanly trait sully his reputation. Therefore, he “hate[d] everything that his father Unoka had loved” (Achebe 13). One of these was gentleness. Okonkwo refuses to show any signs of emotion, except his temper. He

Cultural Change everyone goes thru it, when you move, or when you encounter a different culture like In Chinua Achebe’s novel things fall apart. Nwoye sense of identity was disputed when the foreigners brought their western ideas into the Ibo culture. Nwoye started as a lazy follower of the Ibo religion. But the cultural onslaught from the British foreigners and the Ibo people affected them in a positive manner to the point that nwoye left his family to join the British colonists. The causes for nwoye to adapt in their sense of identity included, his father beat him, and down right was mean and was also disappointed in him as his son. He felt that what his culture was doing was wrong in a sense. His personality conflicted the culture outright.