Okonkwo's Suicide Research Paper

Who would you assume responsible for someone’s suicide? Would you blame the events that caused it? Or would you blame the suicide victim themselves? In the story “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe, The main character, Okonkwo, hangs himself after many events. He may have killed himself, but he is not responsible for his own downfall. The character Okonkwo is very insecure about failure. For example, If he fails, he will resemble his father, Unoka. Okonkwo was ashamed of his father since “he had taken no title at all and he was heavily in debt.” It shows how Okonkwo avoids anything similar to his father. In addition, he is also worried that Umofia will fall apart, making them seen as weak. When he is given the news that the white missionaries took over, he mourned for Umofia since he realized it was falling apart. In brief, Okonkwo was not responsible for his downfall since he is not able to hide his insecurities.

First, He was kicked out of Umofia for mistakenly killing a boy. When he left Umofia, he thought to himself, “why should a man suffer so grievously for an offense he had committed inadvertently?” He didn’t understand the consequences that he got for making a mistake. Second, no one in his clan agreed to fight against the Christians. The people in his village enjoyed that all Christians were seen as equal while limited people disagreed with that rule, Okonkwo being one of them. Therefore, he ultimately couldn’t control anything that led him to his