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Things Fall Apart Essay

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Achebe’s story Things Fall Apart shows the clash of cultures between the British Settlers and the Ibo people of Nigeria through two overlapping stories, which center around a man named Okonkwo. Okonkwo is a respected member of the Umuofia clan, a Nigerian tribe that is part of nine villages. He is haunted by the actions of his cowardly father. Okonkwo became a clansman, warrior, farmer, and family provider. A protagonist has many characteristics including having a goal, certain personality traits and multiple life changing events. Okonkwo is a fitting protagonist because of his personality, his life changing experiences and his loyalty that drives his actions. Okonkwo is a fitting protagonist because of his personality. A protagonist is brave, has superior intelligence and has a character flaw. Okonkwo once spoke of a year that a massive rain had washed away the soil and ruined his clan’s yam harvest. Okonkwo said he “knew that he was a fierce fighter, but that year had …show more content…

Achebe said Okonkwo’s “whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness” (13). Everything Okonkwo does is because he is in fear of being like his father. Sometimes, he tries too hard and fails. Okonkwo does not want to look weak. As the clan killed Ikemefuna, “Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak” (61). The whole time Okonkwo was in exile, he knew he had lost his place in his clan. As soon as he was thrown out, he began to plan for his return. Okonkwo’s loyalty to his clan was larger than his life. Throughout Things Fall Apart, Achebe follows Okonkwo because he is an important character. Okonkwo is obviously different from most clan members. Throughout the book, the characteristics of a protagonist can be seen in Okonkwo. Okonkwo is a fitting protagonist because of his personality, his life changing experiences and his loyalty that drives his

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“His whole life was dominated by fear of failure and weakness” (13), this quote shows that his fear of failure was so deep that it completely dominated his whole life and affected his relationships. In the end Okonkwo was so afraid of the ‘weakness’ that was brought to his clan and had taken over Nwoye, he killed himself. Obierika says “You drove him to kill himself; and now he will be buried like a dog” (208), Okonkwo ended up choosing the ‘weakest’ path that he could have because he knew that he could not live with this new religion and ‘weak’ way of life with no fighting

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Until the 1950’s most African literature was written by Europeans. Chinua Achebe, a Nigerian author, changed this standard in 1958, when he wrote Thing Fall Apart. In his novel, Achebe details the life of Okonkwo, an African man living in the village of Umuofia during the colonization of Nigeria. Okonkwo’s greatest struggle throughout his life and the novel is his fear of looking weak. His fear is apparent through his thoughts and actions.

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With that being said, fear is what formed Okonkwo's personality. He is afraid that he will have weak children, and that he will not amount to anything, this causes him to be extra hard on his children, as well as being as hard of a worker as he is. In chapter 2, paragraph 4 it says “...he (Okonkwo) was not afraid of war. He was a man of action, a man of war. Unlike his father he could stand the look of blood.

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Okonkwo is the main character in the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Okonkwo has done many questionable things and he has a very unique mindset and there is no doubt that he is a flawed man. But there is evidence that he is also a good man. So I think that Okonkwo is both a flawed man and a good man. In chapter four of Things Fall Apart Okonkwo’s youngest wife Ojiugo went to a friends house to plait her hair and did not return early enough to cook the afternoon meal so when she got home he beat her very viciously.

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Prompt 2 Okonkwo is driven by his hatred of his father and the fear he will become like him. Okonkwo saw his father, Unoka, as a coward and is ashamed to be his son. Everything that Okonkwo does is meant to set him apart from the legacy of his father. First, this is evident in his beating of his wives and even his aggression with his children. He is trying to show his strength and ensure he is not portrayed to be like his father: powerless and incapable.

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When Okonkwo first returns back from his exile and hears the news of the white man in Umuofia, his anger increases that no one is trying to fight them. Even after his friend Obierika tells him about how the village Abame was destroyed by similar white missionaries Okonkwo simply thinks “Abame people were weak and foolish. Why did they not fight back... We would be cowards to compare ourselves to the men of Abame” (175). Okonkwo 's aggression blinds him to the dangers of rebelling against the white man, that he is willing to risk the destruction of his whole village just to satisfy his ideology of respecting his religion.

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He was afraid of being thought as weak. Okonkwo realize that he is having trouble functioning with his culture being changed and his village with his old religion he was seen as a leader and he felt like one he had to follow does rules. He was just afraid his culture was going to be taking away from him everything he had learned and all the he knows. “He mourned for the clan, which he saw breaking up and falling apart, and he mourned for the warlike men of Umuofia, who had so unaccountably become soft like women.”

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When Ikemefuna runs towards him, “Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak” (Achebe 13). Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna because he is afraid someone will believe he is weak and similar to his unsuccessful father. He lets this fear of compassion and failing control his life and his decisions. When he is faced with a difficult choice he completes the action that will portray him as a man and not as an agbala, a woman.

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He had gained a great deal of success through his fears, however, Okonkwo’s inability to control his emotions led him to an immediate end. He had always fears to resemble his father -weak, shameful, failure and an abomination- , more so, he died a shameful death just like his

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He was too proud to let his tribe give up their warlike history. He was to proud and self-assured to accept his son's choices. Okonkwo is a sad character whose pride has constantly led him down the crooked path. Achebe shows that being proud isn't a constructive thing for the future. That development can only occur when pride is put aside, and people think logically instead of

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In the book “Things Fall Apart“ Okonkwo is a very strong man and from time to time he starts showing his true self. He has a lot of responsibilities and other things he has to do around the living environment and interact with lots of people. Okonkwo changes from being that strong man, to a man who feels like his tribe is not with him when he wants to go to war with the missionaries. For someone like Okonkwo a lot of people looks up to him and while in the tribe Okonkwo beats his wives and children. Not good behavior for someone who is supposedly looked at as strong.

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The hatred that he had for his father he carried with him throughout his whole life. That hatred turned into him killing Ikemefuna and the messenger. Ikemefuna was thought of as a son and he killed him in fear of being considered weak in front of his clan members. That weakness was thought of his weakness which was considered a failure. At the end of the story Okonkwo ends up being just like his father which is ironic because he strived to be nothing like him.

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In the book are several quotes to support this, but one seems to be the more straightforward quote. “Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness….. It was fear of himself lest he should be

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The post colonial novel, "Things fall apart" by Chinua Achebe depicts its protagonist Okonkwo as great person who falls into the world of chaos to find his own place through his strength and achievements. Okonkwo in few parts of novel touches the traces of epic hero while in other parts touches the tragic hero characteristics. However Okonkwo 's suicide in the end turns the table to reader to view him through different lens than epic hero or tragic hero. According to Aristotle in his poetics, the tragic hero is an intermediate person who is filled with tragic flaw(hubris /hamartia)

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