Things Fall Apart Ikemefuna

People who don't have knowledge about their past history, origin and culture are like trees without roots (Garvey). This novel is about a man named Okonkwo and his family who live in a village called Umuofia. Okonkwo was a man who earned his respect by himself. His father, Unoka was known around the village for asking money, being poor, and not having the qualities of a man. Okonkwo wanted to be the opposite of his father so he worked hard towards making his own identity in the village. Okonkwo was very young when he started earning respect in his village by wrestling in which he won the battles for his village. As a young man Okonkwo went to Nwakibie to get yams from him to start his own farm since his father didn't leave him anything. Nwakibie

Okonkwo had three wives. The plot of the novel becomes more interesting when Ikemefuna who was sent to the village of umuofia because of his father's crime, he was to live with okonkwo and his family for three years. During this time okonkwo had became attached to Ikemefuna . Ikemefuna was a good influence on Okonkwo's son Nwoye. At the end of the three years okonkwo kills Ikemefuna even though he was attached to him, Okonkwo couldn't show weakness. The death of Ikemefuna affected okonkwo very much. This novel takes a turn during the week of peace when okonkwo hits one of his wives and he is exiled from the village for seven years. Okonkwo went to his mother’s land for his years in exile. During that time a white man comes to the village and is killed by the villagers because they thought that the white man was there to harm the villagers. As a reaction to this a group of white men come and destroy a whole

Nwoye converts to the christian faith and so do some of the other villagers. Since the white men were successful in converting the people to the christian faith they started building their own churches, Government, jail, and schools in the villages. When Okonkwo is in exile his friend Obierika told him that his son Nwoye has converted to the Christian faith along with many others in the village. After seven years of exile Okonkwo returned to the village of this Umuofia and tries to explain to the villages that they should not convert to the christian religion. When he returns from exile he also calls all his children to the obi and tells them that Nwoye is no longer a part of the family. The gods of the Igbo tribe were angry that the people of the Igbo culture converted the Christian faith and they burn down the churches. Okonkwo gives up on explaining to people that what they are doing is wrong and he ends up committing suicide. In chinua Achebe’s novel “Things Fall Apart”, the role of customs and traditions is extremely important in deciding the fate of men, women, and children, showing the reader that customs and traditions will always exist whether you accept them or