When things don't go to plan in your life, what do you do? What you do is up to you only you can change what happens for the good or worse, in the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe Okonkwo the main character had to make many decisions going through his later years of life because of the challenges that came his way. Okonkwo's sense of identity came to a crashing halt when things started going bad for him and he was challenged with the introduction of western ideas. Okonkwo started out in the novel as a strong man who was a big part of the culture and his clan, but the culture of the british colonists and the ibo people affected him greatly to the point of no return. His mistakes inevitably lo his death. The reasons for okonkwo's change …show more content…
With the new introduction of the western ideas and with people of his clan deciding to follow them it hit him in a touchy spot. Also once he finds out that his son is one of the new followers he has a lot of questions. Okonkwo was once a big part of the clan like said in the book “Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond. His fame rested on solid personal achievements.” (4) Once okonkwo was exiled and came back everything changed “Seven years was a long time to be away from one's clan. A man's place was not always there, waiting for him. As soon as he left, someone else rose and filled it.”(127) . Although okonkwo knew that after his exile coming back he wouldn't be in the same standing that he was at when he left, ”He had lost the chance to lead his warlike clan against the new religion”(126) he just wanted to be able to help drive the new comers out. With the newcomers coming in and changing things you can only imagine how okonkwo felt knowing how he felt not being important to the clan and having no say in what they could