“This above all: to be true to yourself.”- W. Shakespeare. This quote explains that nothing is more important than being who you are, being who you want to be, and staying true to yourself, especially in times of struggle and adversity. We are all taught this at young ages in our lives in different ways. In Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart, the meaning of this quote is evident throughout the story. Okonkwo, the protagonist in the novel, is known in his village as one of the more fierce and most respected members of his clan. The author develops Okonkwo’s will to stay true to himself throughout the novel as well as Nwoye’s, his son, through Okonkwo’s life in the Igbo villages, the long struggle between the Igbo and European cultures, and Okonkwo’s struggle with his son Nwoye converting to Christianity.
The author first established Okonkwo’s will to stay true to himself through Okonkwo’s background. Okonkwo grew up in the village of Umuofia. His father, Unoka, was “lazy and improvident” and was a debtor in his village. Okonkwo grew up
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Okonkwo’s son, Nwoye, also decided to be who he wanted and stayed true to himself when the missionaries first came to Umuofia. Nwoye was captivated by the “poetry of the religion, something felt in the marrow.” Okonkwo was opposed to Nwoye’s move, and when Okonkwo found out that Nwoye had been to a church, Okonkwo no longer accepted Nwoye as his son. Okonkwo stated to his other four sons that “If any one of you prefers to be a woman, let him follow Nwoye now while I am alive so that I can curse him.” At that time, Okonkwo wished that his daughter, Ezinma, was a boy, as Okonkwo believed that Ezinma was the only child that “understood his every mood,” and that “a bond of sympathy had grown between them as the years had passed.” Okonkwo still stayed true to himself throughout this time, never being convinced of anything other than what he knew and believed