Achebe's Things Fall Apart

“Things fall apart, even when you think they’re stronger than you ever imagined.” ‘Things Fall Apart’, by Chinua Achebe is a book about about the struggles of an African man named Okonkwo and his families life falls apart right before their very eyes. It’s a son duty to carry on the families traditions in this tribe. Although in this story that’s not the case, Okonkwo struggles to get his eldest son Nwoye to act more like a man and less like a woman. Ezinma is Okonkwos favorite child and he wishes that she was a boy because she has all the traits and actions a young man should have. There was another boy named Ike that was almost a role model to Nwoye and almost had Okonkwo conviced his son was becoming a man. Nwoye is Okonkwo’s eldest son,

Okonkwo saw himself as a child in Ike, he was strong and hardworking. With Ike’s presence around Nwoye started to act more and more like a man each day and this made Okonkwo proud. For once in his life Okonkwo saw his son acting like a man, doing what he was supposed to do as a young man. It was all thanks to Ike acting almost like a big brother, showing Nwoye what to do and how to act. Until one day the tribe came to Okonkwo to inform him that they were going to kill Ike for his fathers actions. Although Okonkwo thought his son had changed into a young man after Ike’s death he returned back to his old habbits of being lazy and not caring about fufilling the family traditions. This was nearing the end of Nwoye’s time in his family before soon joining the missionaries and their family for

Even though she is a girl he loves how she has every trait a boy should have, like sitting in Okonkwos hut and doing tasks for him. Time and time again Okonkwo will state that he wishes Ezinma was a boy, that she would’ve been a greart son and he would be prouder of her than he is of Nwoye. Although to us it would seem fine for a girl to be a favortie child and to have them carry on traditions. Their religion however it’s the eldest son that should be doing these tasks, a mans job not a woman. That’s just one of the things that is different from our lives compared to Umuofia’s way of living. Ezinma will be more of a son to Okonkwo than Nwoye will ever