ipl-logo

Suicide In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

1355 Words6 Pages

Sri Sri once said and I quote, "Suicide is one of the most foolish things a person can ever do. It is only through the body that you can dispel the agony and get rid of the misery. Instead you destroy the very instrument by which you can get rid of agony." In the novel "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo who is described as a "tall and huge man" who goes through the never ending battle of trying to be the most successful person he can be. Nevertheless as the titles implies Things fell apart and Okonkwo surrendered his life upon a tree. Even though Okonkwo had an overflowing amount of success in his life he still allowed the negative to encapsulate his mind which can be seen through the use of internal conflict, flashback, themes, foreshadowing, and irony. What happens when you take away a person’s only pride and joy…what else is there for that person to live for? Through internal conflict we are able to see Okonkwo’s life fall apart because of the desire to be the very opposite from his …show more content…

Okonkwo killed himself because he knew that he couldn 't beat this new Christian culture that was rising rapidly within his village. The realization of the new culture undermining the manly clan and himself caused a shift in Okonkwo as seen in chapter 21 when he "mourned for the clan, which he saw breaking up and falling apart… who had so unaccountably become soft like women", yet according to the book Okonkwo had never ushered a tear before. Okonkwo came to a devastating reality that he couldn 't defeat his enemies and if you cannot defeat your enemies you are seen as weak according to the ways of the village. Thus the internal conflict that he was going to be like his father proved dominant. To know that all the work and sacrifices he made to be as manly as he possibly can be was being diminished by these 'weak ' white men was enough to drive him to

Show More
Related
94 Words | 1 Pages

In the piece “Stainless steel all along the soda fountain”, Wah uses soda fountain as a symbolism to express the joyfulness and struggle of his hyphen identity. Wah’s father instructed him to keep the soda fountain clean, taught him to utilize the equipment, and finally Wah surpasses his father by making the soda fountain the “smoothest, shiniest, snazziest soda fountain in town” (41) and creating his own special. Wah comes to his own identity that he emphasises his struggles of adhering to western modernity, and expresses his calm facade and his rebelliousness inside him.

Read More
387 Words | 2 Pages

Prompt 2 Okonkwo is driven by his hatred of his father and the fear he will become like him. Okonkwo saw his father, Unoka, as a coward and is ashamed to be his son. Everything that Okonkwo does is meant to set him apart from the legacy of his father. First, this is evident in his beating of his wives and even his aggression with his children. He is trying to show his strength and ensure he is not portrayed to be like his father: powerless and incapable.

Read More
924 Words | 4 Pages

At first, Okonkwo was very set in his ways, and determined to appear manly and powerful to his clansmen, and this came into play when the white people entered into Umuofia, as he tried to fight back. Finally, when he did not get the results he was hoping for, he resorted to killing himself, displaying that stubbornness towards colliding cultures leads to violence and destruction. Overall, when two cultures collide, they can either both accept each other, leading to peace and prosperity, or try to claim superiority over the other, which results, most commonly, in destruction. Unfortunately, Things fall apart ended in the latter, but the other is possible for those with an open mind and a flexible

Read More
1163 Words | 5 Pages

In “On Tragedy” Aristotle says “That the change of fortune presented must not be the spectacle of a virtuous man brought from prosperity to adversity”. In “Things Fall Apart” Okonkwo notices a reversal in his society after chopping a messengers head off “He wiped his machete on the sand and went away”(176). This quotation from chapter twenty-four demonstrates Okonkwo’s reversal of character after killing a messenger and getting no response or cheers from his fellow clansmen. Okonkwo’s reversal of character after this occurs is what sets up his suicide. This trait is shown by society’s development to deal with the missionaries and Okonkwo’s way of dealing with them is in conflict with the way his fellow villagers want to be handled.

Read More
786 Words | 4 Pages

Okonkwo devotes his life to becoming the opposite of his unsuccessful father. This need to become masculine introduces his fear: “But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of

Read More
1359 Words | 6 Pages

Towards the end of Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo decided to take his own life due to the changes in his tribe caused by the white missionaries. This makes it harder to distinguish if the colonists were responsible for Okonkwo’s death and the diminishing of the Ibo Tribe. However, these colonists are gradually pushing an agenda to the Igbo people where Okonkwo is critical against. The collision between two separate beliefs causes various conflicts occurring in Things Fall Apart that eventually causes Umuofia to fall apart. This undermines Okonkwo’s drive to succeed in traditional terms and his desire to be a leader in his tribe.

Read More
646 Words | 3 Pages

After Okonkwo murders Ikemefuna he has a bulk of feelings and becomes emotional which isn’t like him. The text says “ Okonkwo did not taste any food for two days after the death of Ikemefuna. .. He did not sleep at night, he tried not to think about Ikemefuna but the more he tried, the more he thought about him”(Achebe 63). Okonkwo grown very fond of him, so his death made Okonkwo very dismal about his actions.

Read More
1119 Words | 5 Pages

He was too proud to let his tribe give up their warlike history. He was to proud and self-assured to accept his son's choices. Okonkwo is a sad character whose pride has constantly led him down the crooked path. Achebe shows that being proud isn't a constructive thing for the future. That development can only occur when pride is put aside, and people think logically instead of

Read More
888 Words | 4 Pages

Okonkwo becomes like this because of his father. His father was lazy and dies a dishonorable death and leaves nothing for his family. Okonkwo fears becoming like his father, an agbala. The effect of this is beneficial for Okonkwo. The way he turns out makes him a great man and because of this, he obtains the third highest title in his tribe.

Read More
1038 Words | 5 Pages

From being nothing in his village he rises to be a great, honorable, successful leader of umuofia. He also has a tragic flaw of being weak, failure and having fear that leads him to fail at things several times because of his fears. All of these failures then lead him to his suicide. Finally, he finds his own tragic fate because of his murder of the missionaries court messenger during his villages meeting. Though Okonkwo's life started out as one of the most successful and leading men of Umuofia but because of his violent and impulsive characteristics, even the most successful and well-respected man can fall from his

Read More
965 Words | 4 Pages

In the book “Things Fall Apart“ Okonkwo is a very strong man and from time to time he starts showing his true self. He has a lot of responsibilities and other things he has to do around the living environment and interact with lots of people. Okonkwo changes from being that strong man, to a man who feels like his tribe is not with him when he wants to go to war with the missionaries. For someone like Okonkwo a lot of people looks up to him and while in the tribe Okonkwo beats his wives and children. Not good behavior for someone who is supposedly looked at as strong.

Read More
855 Words | 4 Pages

Things Fall Apart Everyone has its own unique perspective on certain things. In doing so, one must interact or collide with another throughout life. In Things Fall Apart, the author, Chinua Achebe, attempts to communicate the concept of cultural collision while depicting the life of the Igbo tribe. He creates two main characters with contradicting characteristics and responses to a cultural collision in order to strengthen the theme:

Read More
1774 Words | 8 Pages

The hatred that he had for his father he carried with him throughout his whole life. That hatred turned into him killing Ikemefuna and the messenger. Ikemefuna was thought of as a son and he killed him in fear of being considered weak in front of his clan members. That weakness was thought of his weakness which was considered a failure. At the end of the story Okonkwo ends up being just like his father which is ironic because he strived to be nothing like him.

Read More
728 Words | 3 Pages

In conclusion, in the book “Things Fall Apart” Okonkwo has constantly made decisions that have affected himself and others in a negative way. In the book, Okonkwo makes countless decisions that had a huge effect on people such as himself, his family, and his clan. Decisions that Okonkwo has made that affected his life and the lives of others are killing Ikemefuna when he was not supposed to, killing a clansman during Ezeudu 's funeral, and committing suicide after he killed the messenger who was sent from the white man to stop Okonkwo 's meeting. These decisions had groundbreaking aftereffects that greatly changed people 's lives and their effects cannot

Read More
769 Words | 4 Pages

Okonkwo In literature, there are many characters that stand out and show that they have a variety of qualities about them. In Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo is one character that presents character traits from both the negative and positive sides of him. Okonkwo is portrayed to be a warrior who wanted to become somebody strong and looked up to, but also possesses less favorable qualities. He, however, does not let any one trait dictate his whole personality; he is written to be a well-rounded character.

Read More

More about Suicide In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

Related Topics

Open Document