More handpicked essays just for you.
Themes, settings and plot in chinua achebe's things fall apart
Themes, settings and plot in chinua achebe's things fall apart
What are the major characters in "things fall apart"
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
The Flaws of Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart "Man, when perfected, is the best of animals, but, when separated from law and justice, he is the worst of all." (Aristotle). In Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo is living proof of Aristotle's statement. Although he is arguably the most powerful man in Umuofia, His personal flaws of fear of failure and uncontrollable anger do not allow him true greatness as a human being. Okonkwo is one of the most powerful men in the Ibo tribe. In his tribe, he is both feared and honored. This is evident by this quote, "Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond... [He] brought honor to his tribe by throwing Amalinze the Cat..."(3) This suggests that in Okonkwo's society, power is attained by making a name for yourself in any way possible, even if that means fighting and wrestling to get your fame. Although honor is a good thing, when people have to fight to gain it, it becomes an object of less adoration. Okonkwo's "prosperity was visible in his household... his own hut stood behind the only gate in the red walls. Each of his three wives had her own hut... long stacks of yams stood out prosperously in [the barn]... [Okonkwo] offers prayers on the behalf of himself, his three wives, and eight children." (14) Okonkwo has also worked and tended to his crops in a very zealous fashion, and drives everyone around him to work as hard as he does. Because of this, he earns his place as one of Umuofia's most powerful men. In many cultures, a big family is a source of pride. Although Okonkwo is not always pleased by his children and wives, it also brings him a source of pride to have three wives and eight children. Large families mean that the head of the family is able to support all of them. Okonkwo's devotion to his crops and family gives to him the respect that any father and husband deserves, and in his culture, being able to fight and kill as well gives him even more influence and power. Okonkwo's first and most prominent flaw is his fear of becoming a failure.
Abame, a village almost identical to Umuofia, had recently been wiped out by the strange visit of white men. The area in which this story takes place has never seen these albino people, and most of the villages didn’t believe the stories that these men exist. After the first arrival of a white man, Abame consulted the Oracle, who in return, foretold the demise of the clan if they were to let him free. As a result, Abame killed the intruder, and laid the matter to rest. However, even after many market weeks, their precaution led to the anger of the man’s party. On a popular market day the white men attacked and murdered the entire village, and only a small band of refugees were able to survive. When hearing of the innocent slaughter of the tribe, Uchendu tells the story of Mother Kite and her daughter, who are
works should be done. It was a day of rest; from sunset to sunset. The
Throughout the entirety of Romeo & Juliet, Shakespeare is hinting at the “star crossed” deadly fate of the lovers spoken of by the chorus in the prologue. Romeo and Juliet are also constantly mentioning their uneasy feelings and how they can sense that something bad will happen, which confirm the aforementioned conclusion. This foreshadowing not only tells us this tragedy planned, but there must be pawns of fate that have to drive Romeo and Juliet together, while at the same time leading them to their death. In Romeo and Juliet, their deadly destiny was written by the universe and characters along the way, such as Capulet, Montague, Nurse, Friar Lawrence, Friar John, and Mercutio.
A sense of foreboding envelops us from the first. We sense all will not end well for Umuofia. The chill of fear grips us as the world of Okonkwo and his clan truly falls apart. Okonkwo will need all of his power to fight the forces against his world, but tragically he is crippled by the most destructive malady of all, fear of himself. Achebe employs the form of classical Greek tragedy to tell his African tale of the rise and fall of Okonkwo.
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet is one of the best stage plays that Shakespeare has written with a lot of tragedy involved in it and to balance the tragedy Shakespeare has introduced comedy into the play. He achieved this by doing such things as adding comical figures such as nurse or odd behaviour of a character which seems amusing to the audience. The main comedy in the play is introduced when Romeo enters the stage in act one scène one as love sicken person who is over infatuating his love for Rosaline. "Out of her favour where I am in love." (Act1, Scene 1).
Okonkwo is “a man of action, a man of war” (7) and a member of high status in the Igbo village. He holds the prominent position of village clansman due to the fact that he had “shown incredible prowess in two intertribal wars” (5). Okonkwo’s hard work had made him a “wealthy farmer” (5) and a recognized individual amongst the nine villages of Umuofia and beyond. Okonkwo’s tragic flaw isn’t that he was afraid of work, but rather his fear of weakness and failure which stems from his father’s, Unoka, unproductive life and disgraceful death. “Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and weakness….It was not external but lay deep within himself. It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father.” Okonkwo’s father was a lazy, carefree man whom had a reputation of being “poor and his wife and children had just barely enough to eat... they swore never to lend him any more money because he never paid back.” (5) Unoka had never taught Okonkwo what was right and wrong, and as a result Okonkwo had to interpret how to be a “good man”. Okonkwo’s self-interpretation leads him to conclude that a “good man” was someone who was the exact opposite of his father and therefore anything that his father did was weak and unnecessary.
is old and it tells us that it was set in the 1500's by having daggers
Okonkwo’s true nature was clearly only reflected around those he closest to him, many times only under intimate or special circumstances. As his true masculinity, his unrealised and under expressed fondness for those he loved, and his overly expressed fiery temper, was shown to the greatest extent only around those closest to him. This deeply developed the character, and heightened the sense of Okonkwo being a tragic hero in Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart.
Okonkwo is a self-made, well-respected member of the Umuofia clan. Even though he is firm and powerful, I believe that he suffers from internal fear. His greatest fear is that he will become like his father – lazy, unable to support his family, and cowardly. Okonkwo thinks that the ways of his father are feminine and he reacts how he does to avoid being anything like his father. This means that he works hard, provides for his family, is brave, and masculine in every way. Okonkwo is successful in many ways. He becomes very wealthy, holds a high-ranked position in the community, has three wives, and is known for his skill as a wrestler and warrior. But you will find that even through all of the positive qualities, his fear of being like his father is forces him to make some unnecessary and harmful decisions. His fear of being like his father leads him to assist in the murder of Ikemefuna – who was like a son, to beat his wives, is emotionally distant from his children, and to disown his oldest son.
The white man considered Africans to be primitive savages. They were seen as inferior, second-class citizens. Chinua Achebe was an African novelist who sought to give the African people a voice. Achebe gave a prospective of African culture that had been missing from the literature. The white man primarily composed works of literature, therefore there was a skewed representation of African culture. Achebe conveyed a greater understanding of African culture through his first novel Things Fall Apart. This analysis will examine Okonkwo’s power and lack of freedom through his wealth, property, and actions.
The character of Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart was driven by fear, a fear of change and losing his self-worth. He needed the village of Umuofia, his home, to remain untouched by time and progress because its system and structure were the measures by which he assigned worth and meaning in his own life. Okonkwo required this external order because of his childhood and a strained relationship with his father, which was also the root of his fears and subsequent drive for success. When the structure of Umuofia changed, as happens in society, Okonkwo was unable to adapt his methods of self-evaluation and ways of functioning in the world; the life he was determined to live could not survive a new environment and collapsed around him.
Things Fall Apart. Such an intriguing title, because everything will eventually fall apart. Chinua Achebe's choice of a title may lead some to confusion, because throughout his book many things fall apart, from Okonkwo's personal life achievements and emotions to the town of Umuofia as its people split, and perhaps the biggest thing to fall apart, the very culture of the Igbo people. One could focus on any one of these topics and trace the complexity of it's fall from previous glory to the eventual ruin at the end of Achebe's novel. Studying the overall book provides a much more interesting conclusion, however, than simply tracking the different ways people or the town change, as instead it is possible to gain insight into Achebe's goals in writing this complex, tragic story. Achebe uses the details of Okonkwo's personal life falling apart and of the town of Umuofia's struggles to maintain it's traditions as metaphors for the falling apart of Igbo culture as it was known before the Europeans came.
Okonkwo embodies all the ideal and heroic traits of the Igbo culture. He is strong, authoritative, hardworking, and successful. The opening sentence states that “Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond” (3). Okonkwo is great and famous because of his “solid personal achievements” (3). Okonkwo first achieved fame and recognition when he became the village’s wrestling champion. At eighteen years of age, he had “brought honor to his village” by defeating the seven-year champion. By winning the wrestling match, Okonkwo demonstrates to his village his great strength and skill as a warrior. After that his fame spread “like a bush-fire in the harmattan” (3). Okonkwo governs his household with authority. He “ruled his household with a heavy hand” (13). His wives and children lived “in perpetual fear of his fiery temper” (13). Okonkwo is a hard task-master. He works on his farm “from cock-crow until the chickens went to roost” and compelled his family to do the same (13). He does not tolerate laziness in his sons. He punishes his son, Nwoye, with “constant nagging and beating” (14). Okonkwo is the sole and unquestionable authority figure in his household.
n his delineation of the defining factors of a tragic hero, Aristotle drew on the archetypes established in Greek tragedies by such masters as Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Because this type of hero occurred often, and these three great tragedians ' works served as a basis for later writers, the archetype persisted in European literature, as evidenced in works by authors such as Shakespeare. A major question that arises, then, is whether the tragic hero is a purely European archetype, perpetuated as a result of prominent Greek tragedies, or whether he occurs throughout all human culture and was captured by the Greeks in an example of a universally human character. The main character of Chinua Achebe 's novel Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo, offers a potential solution for this dilemma, given both his and Achebe 's Nigerian nationality. Despite the tragic elements of his story, however,
In Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo is an extremely complex character who experiences a variety of emotions which he has a difficult time controlling. He experiences a never ending battle of psychosomatic symptoms, starting with his obsession over the conflict of the past with his father, Unoka. Okonkwo portrays himself as a heroic, strong warrior, only to mask the feelings of intense anger, fear, and selfishness that provokes him, which inevitably leads him down the same path as his father. He feels a strong hatred towards his father because he believes that his father had no masculine qualities, he owed everyone money, and owned no titles. Achebe states: