Over the years, there have been many ideas of what a hero is. We all know the stories of superheroes like Batman, The Flash, Ironman, and The Incredible Hulk. Being a hero is more than being the strongest person around. There are everyday heroes that exist in our world. A hero can be anyone. Even a man doing something as simple and reassuring as putting a coat around a young boy's shoulders to let him know that the world hadn't ended. A hero could be a young boy helping an elderly woman cross the road. There is no exception. There are heroes all over ther world. all different shapes, races, and sizes. Chinua Achebe tells us the tale of an unsung hero named Okonkwo who lives in an Ibo village in Nigeria. Achebe’s Things Fall Apart demonstrates how Okonkwo is a righteous hero by showing how he handles every event in the rise and fall of his life.
As far as heroes go, what do you think of them? Most people just think of the superheroes you see in the comics or in a movie or on TV. Nobody generally thinks of what an everyday hero is. One sense of the word hero is a leader. A leader is a hero. If you ever watch TV and see those military commercials they tell you how much of an impact being a leader has on the community and the world. It is true. I am a cadet in the Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (AFJROTC) and our goal is to be better leaders. I understand how important a leader is wherever you go. You need someone to provide guidance and support when you need it. This is true not only in our society but all societies. Let’s look at Okonkwo’s Ibo village. In his village of Umuofia, there are a group of members who gather to deal with the concerns of the village. Okonkwo was one of those members. When there was a meeting...
... middle of paper ...
.... 2014
Cook, David. “The Centre Holds: A Study of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.” Critical Insights: Things Fall Apart(2010): 124-144. Literary Reference Center. Web. 30 Jan. 2014
Criswell, Stephen. “Okonkwo As Yeatsian Hero: The Influence of W.B. Yeats on Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.” The Literary Criterion 30.4: 1-14. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter. Vol. 127. Detroit: Gale Group, 2000. Literature Resource Center. Web. 3 Feb. 2014
Dawson, Ema, and Pierre Larrivee. “Attitudes to Language in Literary Sources: Beyond post-colonialism In Migration Literature.: English Studies 91.8(2010): 920-932. Literary Reference Center. Web. 30 Jan. 2014
Friesen, Alan R. “Okonkwo’s Suicide as an Affirmative Act: Do Things Really Fall Apart?” Critical Insights: Things Fall Apart(2010): 283-298. Literary Reference Center. Web. 30 Jan. 2014
The novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a story that opens the reader's mind to an entirely different way of living in a Nigerian village. Achebe was born in Nigeria in 1930, perhaps this is why he writes a whole book on a Nigerian village and introduces to us the ways of life for the Nigerian people. From the first page of the book to the last, Achebe allows the reader to enter the mind of the main character Okonkwo. Okonkwo is the leader of his village and is very respected for his many achievements. Although Okonkwo means well for his village, the novel invites the reader to see him has a flawed character who eventually suffers from the consequences of bad "masculine" decisions he makes throughout the book.
Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. First Anchor Books Edition. New York, NY: Random House, Inc., 1959. Print.
One of the most commonly asked questions about the novel Things Fall Apart is: why did Achebe choose a tragic hero, Okonkwo, as the main character in the story. According to Nnoromele, “A hero, in the Igbo cultural belief system, is one with great courage and strength to work against destabilizing forces of his community, someone who affects, in a special way, the destinies of others by pursuing his own. He is a man noted for special achievements. His life is defined by ambivalence, because his actions must stand in sharp contrast to ordinary behavior”(Nnoromele). In my opinion, he chose this type of hero to show the correlation between Okonkwo’s rise and fall in the Igbo society to the rise and fall of the Igbo culture itself. Many commentators have come up with various reasons for Okonkwo’s failure in the novel. Some say that it is just his chi that causes him to be a failure; however others believe it is because he is incapable of dealing with his culture deteriorating before his eyes. In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo’s character as a tragic hero is a result of his chi, inability to cope with the destruction of the Igbo culture, and ultimately, his own suicide.
Ari Brace Mr. Liepa Honors Global Literature 4 May 2014 Adapting to Change Chinua Achebe’s book, Things Fall Apart, is a story about a society on the verge of a cultural change. The main character, Okonkwo, is driven throughout the story by fear and a drive for success. He relied on the village of Umuofia to stay the same because he used the structured culture to feel safe and appreciated. He lives in a constant state of fear because he wants to find his own meaning in life.
The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Vol. 2c seventh edition. Archebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart.
Seeing the line “Things fall apart” in the poem , Achebe makes an outstanding association. At this point in time he says to himself, “I should name my book Things Fall Apart, It will show the main idea of the book.”
Okhamafe, Imafedia. "Geneological Determinism in Achebe's Things Fall Apart." Modern Critical Interpretation: Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 2002. 125-44. Print.
middle of paper ... ... Works Cited Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1958.
Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart, follows the tragic life of Okonkwo, a man who suffers a miserable fate due to the fear of failure that controls every action he makes. Though the fear of failure acts as motivation to become a successful and respected man at first, it later cripples Okonkwo in such a way that failure ultimately defines his life. Okonkwo is constantly afraid of being a victim of weakness and desperately tries to remain a strong and unyielding man. It is his overwhelming fear of weakness that causes things to fall apart in his life, as his attempts to avoid failure and weakness eventually lead to the ultimate defeat: his shameful suicide. Fear of failure and weakness dominates Okonkwo throughout his life.
Okonkwo is the main character within the book, Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe. Okonkwo is an individual whom has many different personalities that are portrayed in different situations. He can be a nice and welcoming individual but also an abusive and harmful individual. Before returning to Umofia, in which the missionaries had invaded, Okonkwo had grown up upon resenting his father’s laziness, devoting his time in proving that he was much better than his father. That he was more respectable and masculine. These were qualities in which Okonkwo’s father had lacked. Upon reaching Umofia, Okonkwo becomes more passive than he has ever been. While watching in sorrow and grief of the coming of the missionaries as he is unable to anything about. The missionaries had turned Okonkwo into a completely different individual. Changing him for the worst.
When we were kids, we all had that one person we looked up to. Whether it was a princess, a celebrity, a fictional superhero, or a family member, we gave this person the title “hero.” We selected these people to be our heroes because they had specific qualities like bravery, strength, and intelligence, but not all heroes are required to have these qualities. A hero is someone who, based on perspective, can be found almost anywhere because they make sacrifices and do actions for the better of others.
Throughout history, there have been many instances of people struggling to identify and cope with change and tradition, and this is no different in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.
It is important to note that Achebe was a product of both traditional Igbo society and the colonizing British culture. Therefore, the narrative is influenced by two strikingly opposed philosophies. The tragic hero, Okonkwo, may have been crafted to express, not only the Igbo philosophy of harmony, but the outsider interpretation of a seemingly paradoxical belief system. Achebe's representation of Okonkwo may symbolize the collision of these two conflicting philosophies.
Chinua Achebe is said to be “one of the most influential writers” of the century not only in Nigeria, his homeland but also throughout the world (Albany). Chinua Achebe was born in Ogidi, Nigeria on November 16, 1930. He was born a son of a Chrisitan Churchman, Isaiah Okafo and Janet N. Achebe. Achebe was raised an Ibo Christian, which made him stand out among his fellow peers. Achebe’s lifestyle was different than that of other people living in his village because of his religious background and upbringing. When Achebe was fourteen he began schooling at Government Albany College in Umuahia for three years. He then attended the University of Ibadan from 1948 through 1953. Following his education at the University of Ibandan Achebe earned his Bachelors Degree from London University in 1953. It was a year later when Achebe was named Talk Producer of the Nigerian Broadcasting Service. Then in 1956 Achebe began to study broadcasting at the British Broadcasting Corporation in London. (Critical Survey of Short Fiction) Finally in 1958, Achebe’s first novel, Things Fall Apart was published. (Albany) Following the completion of his first book, Achebe became the founding editor of Heinemann’s African Writers Series. Since writing his first novel Achebe has won many awards and honors for his publications. Among these awards and honors are the Commonwealth Prize, and the highest award for intellectual achievement in his native country Nigeria. (Albany)
Chinua Achebe's novel, Things Fall Apart, uses the changes in African tribal culture brought about by European colonization to illustrate the evolution of the character Okonkwo. As Okonkwo leads his life, his experiences, personality and thought are revealed to the reader. The obstacles he faces in life are made numerous as time progresses. Okonkwo's most significant challenge originates within himself. He also encounters problems not only when in opposition to the white culture, but in his own culture, as he becomes frustrated with tribal ideals that conflict with his own. The last adversary he encounters is of the physical world, brought upon himself by his emotional and cultural problems. The manner through which Okonkwo addresses his adversaries in Things Fall Apart creates the mechanism that leads to his eventual destruction.