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Nwoye's Change In Things Fall Apart

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Sometimes when there's a path that leads out of pressure, our best option is to take it even if it means going against your own culture and leaving your family and everything you know behind to follow change and accept the modern culture. This decision was faced upon the character Nwoye in the book “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe. Starting from the beginning of the novel, Nwoye was always disapproved of by his father as they were quite different. Nwoye’s father “Okonkwo '' had always been a fierce, strong, and hard working person. So when Nwoye didn't meet his fathers standards which were to be like him he would beat and curse his son as Nwoye was a weak and emotional boy. Nwoye's internal conflict was being faced with how a man was supposed …show more content…

For one example, standard gender roles were very important to the older generations of the villages. So to Okonkwo's surprise when Nwoye Does not match a man's personality he gets upset and quotes, “A chick that will grow into a cock can be spotted the very day it hatches. I have done my best to make Nwoye grow into a man, but there is too much of his mother in him.” (66) Here we see how Okonkwo does not approve of Nwoye because of his non-masculine attributes and throughout the books disowns him as a son. But Nwoye found nothing wrong with this and he just discredited the Ibo culture. Another example of Nwoye not agreeing with his culture's ideology is how in the book Achebe tells us, “…a vague chill had descended on him and his head had seemed to swell, like a solitary walker at night who passes an evil spirit on the way. Then something had given way inside of him. It descended on him again, this feeling, when his father walked in, that night after killing Ikemefuna'' (65). In this sentence we can see the guilt and disapproval from Nwoye because of the actions of his tribe. He had these feelings after hearing the cries of twin babies out in the forest. In Ibo culture they throw out twins in the forest to die because of “evil spirits' '. Nwoye feels this is wrong just as he felt it was wrong for the tribe to kill Ikemefuna just because “The Oracle of the Hills and Caves has pronounced …show more content…

For example Okonkwo ended up becoming a prisoner and ultimately ended up killing himself. However this was not the case for Nwoye. During pre-colonization Nwoye didn't know where he saw himself and seemed lost and misfit in his Village. For example, when Nwoye does not cut yams for planting properly, Okonkwo says to Nwoye that ''if you split another yam of this size, I shall break your jaw.'(pg 78) Okonkwo's treatment of Nwoye leaves Nwoye feeling unsure of himself and scared of making mistakes. This was a notable trait found in Nwoye throughout the book during pre colonization. Another contrasting view found at the beginning of the book for Nwoye is when Nwoye reverts to his former gentle nature after his role model and brother Ikemefuna gets murdered, instead of sticking to the falsified masculine one he pretended to have in Ikemefuna’s appearance. Increasingly, Okonkwo comes to view Nwoye as a disappointment and extremely effeminate. After the arrival of the missionaries and the process of colonization is the turning point of Nwoye's character development. Proof of this is found in (pg. 133) when the reader can see Nwoye's true intentions of why he decided to convert, “It was not the mad logic of the Trinity

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Okonkwo not giving Nwoye the love that he needed, led to the relationship between the two down the road. Okonkwo was pleased with the progress in Nwoye’s development, however, he still didn’t give the love that Nwoye deserved. All Okonkwo was worried about was Nwoye being able to grow into a tough man and rule his father’s household. This would lead the reader to feel that Okonkwo isn’t supporting (which he barely does) Nwoye for the right reasons. Okonkwo was comparing Nwoye to other children that had already grown up and become strong young men.

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In the novel, Things Fall Apart, author Chinua Achebe demonstrates how when faced with a cultural collision one may choose to be open-minded and seek new opportunities through a character’s shift in identity. Nwoye prior to the European colonists didn’t fully go along with everything his father Okonkwo had taught him to continue his clan ways and traditions. Even though Nwoye participated in cultural events such as celebrations, his father Okonkwo still considered him to perceived as weak just like okonkwo

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As a child, Nwoye is the frequent object of his father's criticism and remains emotionally unfulfilled. Okonkwo, “wanted Nwoye to grow into a tough man capable of ruling his father’s household when he was dead and gone to join the ancestors”(38). When Nwoye finds out that it is Okonkwo who killed a “brother” who he is extremely fond of, and grows very close with, he loses all appreciation for Okonkwo and decides to go against his father and his cultures.

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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.

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"That was the kind of story that Nwoye loved. But he knew that they were for foolish women and children… [that he] no longer cared for women's stories" (Achebe 46,47). Nwoyes' identity was subjected to gender stereotype that he feels like he has to play a role in order to satisfy his

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Among those of the same culture, individuals who are adaptive and open-minded can be successful when there is cultural collision. When the Igbo and European cultures collide, Okonkwo gradually spirals out of control, losing everything he values and his own sense of self. From the beginning of the novel, Achebe depicts Okonkwo as a virile warrior and a successful farmer within the Igbo tribe. Reacting with violence to anything he considers “womanly” or “weak”, “He was a man of action and man of war” (10). Because of his reputation as a warrior he is highly respected by his community.

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In Chinua Achebe novel, Things Fall Apart Nwoye a young man under Okonkwo’s responsibility is affected positively by the introduction of western ideas into the Ibo culture. This being said Nwoye has found a passion for being apart of a religion not known by any local in Igbo called Christianity, to some it was a blessing and to others a disgrace. To Okonkwo he feels that anybody who converts to Christianity is a disgrace to their village. And how surprising is it that his own son converts to a Christian. And in his conversion he tries to escape his strict culture and find out who he is as a person.

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His fear of weakness and failure is derived from his father, Unoka’s failures, which ignite Okonkwo’s misogynistic views. Throughout his lifetime, Okonkwo associates femininity with weakness because of Unoka, who was called an “agbala” or woman by the people of Umuofia. Since women have this reputation for weakness, Okonkwo lives with constant fear that he will be given the same title as his father. Okonkwo’s first son, Nwoye’s effeminacy reminds Okonkwo of his own father. He says, "I have done my best to make Nwoye grow into a man, but there is much of his mother in him ."(Achebe, 66).

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Similarly, Nwoye also resists the reputation of his own father by rejecting this masculine regime of Okonkwo and Igbo culture, showing feminine virtues instead. His intention to carry his beliefs on to his children is established when Okonkwo thinks to himself after he learns of Nwoye’s conversion to Christianity. Nwoye made the decision to leave Umofia after the realization that his views do not coincide with those of his society any longer due to the life time of exposure to the toxicity of Okonkwo’s masculine behavior. It is because he refuses to conform that Nwoye wishes to alter the reputation of himself and his family by joining a culture that he finds to reflect the values that he believes in, instead of those he was dejectedly forced into following by his

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