Things Fall Apart Response Analysis

The character of Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart was driven by fear, a fear of change and losing his self-worth. He needed the village of Umuofia, his home, to remain untouched by time and progress because its system and structure were the measures by which he assigned worth and meaning in his own life. Okonkwo required this external order because of his childhood and a strained relationship with his father, which was also the root of his fears and subsequent drive for success. When the structure of Umuofia changed, as happens in society, Okonkwo was unable to adapt his methods of self-evaluation and ways of functioning in the world; the life he was determined to live could not survive a new environment and collapsed around

Things Fall Apart is a novel written by Chinua Achebe about the fictional people of the Ibo tribe in Umuofia. The practices of this African tribal society are depicted through the third person limited point of view that follows the main protagonist of the novel known as Okonkwo. The novel illustrates practices and values that are sanctioned by the society as they end up struggling to maintain their prevalence once colonists arrive. As a culture, the Ibo people of Things Fall Apart have practices that shape their society by showcasing what is seen as important. This includes their invaluable idea of masculinity in which they see to require strength and success. The patriarchal rule of Ibo society establishes the framework that leads to the perceived inadequacy of females and

In the novel Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo’s shame for his father, Unoka, motivates him to be everything his father wasn’t. As a result, Okonkwo hides behind masculinity and conceals his emotions, in hope of escaping weakness. Stubborn and impulsive, Okonkwo makes rash decisions to uphold his reputation, which affects his tribe and his family. Okonkwo’s constant fear of resembling his father takes over his ability compromise and causes him to suffer from depression, the “loss” of his son, the loss of

In the novel Things Fall Apart, strength and pride are very important aspects of the main character, Okonkwo, however, these traits may sound like excellent traits to possess but because of the way he was raised, Okonkwo harbours many of his emotions under an outer shell of violence, strength and pride. His traits can be shown by looking at where he has come from in his life, for example, Okonkwo has acquired a large amount of wealth in his life because of his hard work and dedication which he also puts towards his family, unfortunately, his family also suffers greatly because of this due to Okonkwo’s high expectations of his children and his violent ways when they do not live up to them. Secondly, Okonkwo possesses hidden emotions that

Okonkwo strives all of his life to become a stronger, more powerful, and a successful individual. He wants to do this because his father was a slack and lazy person who lived most of his life in debt and had no titles to his name. People often looked at his father as a women figure for the few achievements he redeemed. Okonkwo never wanted to be like his father and it eventually got to the point where he became fearful of becoming like him. Achebe uses the power of fear as a theme of to show how much it can devastate one’s

Chinua Achebe unfolds a variety of interesting connections between characters in the Novel Things Fall Apart. Relationships with parents, children and inner self are faced differently, however the attitude that Okonkwo gave them determined what kind of outcome he generated from these relations. Okonkwo looks at everything through his violent and manly perspective and is afraid to show his real feelings because he thinks that he may be thought out as weak and feminine this paranoid attitude lead him to self-destruction.

As a story about a culture on the verge of change, Things Fall Apart deals with how the prospect and reality of change affect various characters. To some extent, Okonkwo’s resistance of cultural change is also due to his fear of losing societal status. Long scorned, these outcasts find in the Christian value system a refuge from the Igbo cultural values that place them below everyone else. The tension about whether change should be privileged over tradition often involves questions of personal status. Okonkwo, for example, resists the new political and religious orders because he feels that they are not manly and that he himself will not be manly if he consents to join or even tolerate them.

In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo starts off with so much strength and power. He is a leader in his village and, is always working towards more success.With many mistakes Okonkwo starts to lose everything including his respect and authority. He goes through some big changes, and his life completely turns around. His aggression and violence become out of hand, and he can not control himself. He has to face extreme punishments that change who is and how he feels. Okonkwo’s success decreases throughout Things Fall Apart.

In the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, not only are pride and manliness central themes but they also contribute to the demise of the main character, Okonkwo. In his mind, he is fighting the downfalls of his father while pushing away the people in his life who actually love him. By fighting the past, Okonkwo’s insecurities result in a lifetime of failure. Okonkwo has a desire to be in control of the clan.

Throughout Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart, he describes fear of weakness as an aspect of human nature that leads people to conduct cruel acts. Achebe uses Okonkwo to portray how fear of weakness negatively affects people. The fear of weakness has controlled Okonkwo for his entire life. Umuofia had always looked down upon Okonkwo’s father; this resulted in Okonkwo trying to be different from his father. The main reason for Okonkwo’s fear of weakness is his own father.

In Okonkwo’s case in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, tradition and legacy constrict his mind to make choices that would give him titles and honor. His status is above all the most important thing to him, because of his obsessive need to be nothing like his father. It was not just an obsessive need but a full-blown fear that he would slightly resemble his father’s carefree lifestyle and be deemed as weak and feminine. “Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness. It was deeper and more intimate than the fear of evil and capricious gods and of magic, the fear of the forest, and of nature, malevolent, red in tooth and claw. Okonkwo’s fear was greater than these. It was not external, but lay deep within himself. It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father” (Achebe, 13). This rigidity that he possesses leads him to make rash and vile decisions, for example, his participation in the death of Ikemefuma. This incident indicates the beginning in the end, it “initiates a series of catastrophes which end with his death” (Carroll, 44). The world around Okonkwo was changing rapidly, and everything he had worked for, and killed for became too much, for he could not adapt to his environment. Okonkwo’s inability to refine his life to the world, and process his fears results in his suicide at the

In the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the author leads his reader through the life of a man named Okonkwo. In his life, he rises to be a very successful man in his village of Umuofia, but also he falls to the lowest points. This novel shows that with an ever changing world, never adapting to the changes around can lead to a place of complete failure. Being a failure is Okonkwo’s biggest fear, he does not want to turn out to be like his father, a man with an unquestionable lack of masculinity and success in his life. Okonkwo is obsessed with maintaining his image of masculinity in the rest of the world, whereas this trait is seen as a positive one by Okonkwo, it ultimately leads to negative results in his life that can not be reversed.

Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart, is a tale about Okonkwo, erstwhile respected warrior who is troubled by his father’s actions, which causes Okonkwo to make unscrupulous decisions with his life. The novel begins with Okonkwo, an extremely skilled wrestler that was recognized throughout the nine villages especially after he defeated Amalinze the Cat. Okonkwo was tall, massive, and had wide nose that gave him a very severe look. Okonkwo disgraced his father Unoka, because to the fact that he was particularly lazy and profligate person. Unoka was a failure in life for the reason that he was poor, he barely could feed his wife and children. Unoka could not receive help due to the fact that he was a debtor and refused to pay people back. Ogbuefi Ezeudu, a respected elder and powerful orator, announces “Those sons of wild animals have dared to murder a daughter of Umuofia.” Umuofia was feared by the other villages because of their skilled military. Okonkwo arrives at Mbaino, in a settlement Okonkwo is given a young virgin and a young boy named Ikemefuna because one of Mbaino murdered a girl from Umuofia. Okonkwo is chosen to represent the Umuofia because he’s a vicious warrior. Since Okonkwo fears failure and weakness for the reasons of his father Unoka, Okonkwo ruled his house with an iron fist. Okonkwo becomes a father figure to Ikemefuna who also builds a strong relationship with Okonkwo’s son Nwoye. Ikemefuna lives with Okonkwo and his family for three years until such

“Things Fall Apart” takes us through the life of Okonkwo and his family when it spirals downward since "his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and weakness"2 and it starts to take failures, or at least what Okonkwo considered failures, left and right. A very present

Throughout history and the development of humans, people have made theories about the mental development of humans. One such person is Sigmund Freud, the neurologist who founded psychoanalysis. His theories of id, ego, superego, repression, and the unconscious helped us to understand people just a little bit more. The id is the primal impulses, ego is the personal identity, superego is the self-critical conscience, repression is suppressing thoughts and desires, and the unconscious is the desires people have inside their thoughts and are usually painful. All of these theories perfectly describe Okonkwo. In the book, “Things Fall Apart”, by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo showed Sigmund Freud’s theories through conflicting motives, interaction with characters, and advancements in the plot.