Nwoye Transformation

Peter Sarsgaard once said: “I always think change is important in a character. The most dynamic choices that you can make for a character are always the best ones.” In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Nwoye, as a character without full-developed personality, experiences the most dynamic changes—the connection with Ikemefuna and the conversion to Christianity—in his growing journey. At his early age, Nwoye is an effeminate boy who prefers a mild and easy lifestyle; however, with the influence of Ikemefuna, Nwoye gradually behaves like a man. When Okonkwo reads masculine and violent stories to Nwoye, “Nwoye knew that it was right to be masculine and to be violent, but somehow he still preferred the stories that his mother used to tell.” Spending

When Nwoye decides to leave his family to pursue his faith, Okonkwo realizes “But he left hold of Nwoye, who walked away and never returned.” Leaving his family and clans, Nwoye is confronting a huge change in his life. This change may be pretty hard to make because he has to discover a new world himself. Recalling at the very beginning, it is impossible for Nwoye to leave because he is not masculine enough to take his own adventure. However, now, he is no longer a boy relied on his family; rather, he becomes a mature man to decide his future path himself and accept his coming of age. It is well-established that throughout the book, Nwoye’s growing changes from a boy to a real man. Even though Nwoye experienced dynamic change during his life, his personality in this book is flat. Nwoye decides to make his first change responded to his father’s dissatisfaction to him, “That was the kind of story that Nwoye loved. But he knew that they were for foolish women and children, and he knew that his father wanted him to be a man.” In Things Fall Apart, the descriptions of Nwoye mainly portray one kind of personality—fear towards his father Okonkwo. Thus, they have little interactions, which are always Okonkwo’s rebuke. The lack of father-love leads Nwoye’s consistent fear to

Chinua Achebe shape Nwoye’s dynamic change and his flat personality corresponding to the development of main character Okonkwo.Throughout the book, Nwoye mainly shows one type of personality—cowardly and feared, which means it is difficult for readers to fully discover his mind deeply. However, even though the author portrays Nwoye as a flat character, the life of Nwoye is dynamic and changing. Therefore, it stands to reason that Nwoye is a flat character who changes over time in Things Fall