Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

Seattleine Mangidoyos

Ms. Maghirang

Honors English 9-2

9 February 2018

Cliffhanger

Without conflict there is no plot, without hope, there is no story. In Chinua Achebe’s novel ‘Things Fall Apart’, the protagonist named Okonkwo experiences a series of events that lead to unforgiving suicide. Okonkwo, a brave man with rasping words, participants in killing Ikemefuna, a boy who calls him “father.” Despite the fact, he was warned multiple times not to, he proceeded to do so in order to protect his masculinity which was the starting point of his depression. Okonkwo falls into deeper depression when he was exiled from his fatherhood and returned to his village seven years later to discover the change in his beloved village; it weakened

He feared there may be a possibility of becoming a man similar to his father, Unoka who was negligent and effeminate. “It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father. Even as a little boy he had resented his father’s failure and weakness, and even now he still remembered how he had suffered when a playmate had told him that his father was agbala” (Achebe 12). ‘Agbala’ was an insulting term that referred to a woman or someone who hasn’t earned a title. Okonkwo was ashamed to be the son of an unsuccessful man with no ambition nor title. He did everything in his power to prevent himself from walking the same path. He worked hard to achieve his goal; to earn titles and demonstrate his strong, proud, and masculine personality, everything Unoka didn’t thrive for. Okonkwo was best described as “well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond. His fame rested on solid personal achievements” (3). By winning against Amalinze the Cat, who had been undefeated for seven years, Okonkwo proved to everyone he was robust and courageous. Okonkwo achieved what his pitiful father had been unable to do. Accordingly, in Okonkwo’s mind, he was victorious because he didn’t follow the same path his father

Okonkwo was exiled to his motherland and returned to his fatherland after seven years. The White Missionaries arrived in Umuofia to attempt to spread peace and the word of God. At the beginning, the white men were harmless and weren’t feared because they haven’t begun to command changes in their lives. The villagers didn’t understand that their mission was to abolish the customs of the village and replace them with the colonial government’s attitudes and values. The way the white men were undermining the culture of the Igbo people, greatly disturbed Okonkwo. He watches the negative effect the white missionaries have on his village and watches as his own son throws away his traditional beliefs and adopted Christianity. What Okonkwo fears the worst came true, “Now he has owned our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like. He has a put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart”