Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart

as he ran towards him. Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak. (43) In Okonkwo's mind, the other villagers must not see him as weak. Okonkwo felt love and pity for the boy BUT he feared that his manliness might be in question.

However, he must fight against his manly pride, which reminds him that killing someone should not bother him. However, he has trouble accepting this, but must for fear of being considered weak, like a "shivering old woman" (Achebe 45). Another instance of Okonkwo's hot temper arises while he and some other men are locked up in a cell and Okonkwo reaffirms how he believes they should have killed Mr. Smith. A messenger overhears this remark and beats each of the men on their backs and heads with a large stick. A final illustration of Okonkwo's rash actions leading to suffering for himself and those around him occurs when he hastily kills the head messenger who comes to Umuofia to break up a town meeting.

The protagonist of the story has a fatal flaw, fear of weakness and unbalance that leads to his downfall. Achebe would see this as a serious character flaw because of the culture he comes from (Okafor). Okonkwo is also unbalanced, another trait that is frowned upon by his society. Wise men, such as the elder Ogbuefi Ezedu, or Okonkwo’s friend Obierkia have a balance of warlike aggressio... ... middle of paper ... ...hebe 207). Okonkwo’s actions lead him to the choice to kill himself, not bad Chi or fate.

Okonkwo ultimately inflicts pain on himself when he kills the son he has a special connection with only to prove himself worthy of the clan. Okonkwo’s fear of not gaining complete approval from the clan causes him to force pain upon his loved ones. After witnessing Okonkwo’s irrational decisions, it is clear that this inclination can do more harm than good. Gaining acceptance is not only limited to Africans, but is a universal craving all humans have. Yet, pleasing everyone is a mere illusion.

Plot - In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the main character adopts a son from another village as payment for the killing of a “daughter of Umuofia.” Three years after later Okonkwo even says he loves Ikemefuna more than his own son. But it is then decreed, by the village spiritual leader, that Ikemefuna must die. Many people walk together and take him out to the woods, but Okonkwo himself ends up being the one to carry it out. Here is Okonkwo killing Ikemefuna: “He heard Ikemefuna cry, “My father they have killed me!” as he ran towards him. Dazed with fear Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down.

In the case of Unoka he had achieve no titles and was a debtor. Unoka had a great childhood and loved the good fare and the good fellowship but “Unoka, the grown-up, was a failure” (Achebe 5).He was said to be poor and his wife and children barely had enough to eat, this caused people to laugh at him because he was a slacker. This caused Okonkwo to have no patience with unsuccessful men also “He had no patience with his father” (Achebe 4). Therefore Unoka and Okonkwo had no father and son relationship, he despised he father so much that he forgot to be a father to Nwoye. Due that his father was such a lazy man he also had to support his own mother and sister which was not his duty.

Okonkwo builds his life around this ideal because his father was considered town failure. He is constantly blindly trying to better his social status. An obvious portrayal of his need to keep his masculinity is his murder of a boy. The boy was practically a son to him who had been raised in his home among his family. It is decided by the town elders that the boy, Ikemefuna, should be killed in retribution of a woman murdered three years ago.

His whole life Okonkwo strived to not to look weak like his father, but in the end he took the cowards way out, suicide. Suicide was a great sin against the Earth. Because he took his own life, Okonkwo, a great leader of Umuofia, had to be buried by strangers. All of his work and perseverance amounted to nothing because of what he had done. Another claim that people might make is that he is justified because he was just finishing what the white people had started by imprisoning him and his fellow villagers.

Fear of failure and weakness dominates Okonkwo throughout his life. At first this fear motivates him to rise to success by working diligently and doing everything his father did not do. However, even when Okonkwo establishes an honorable reputation, fear of failure continues to overwhelm him and drives him to perform acts that lead to his suffering. One example of this is when the men of Umuofia decide that Ikemefuna must be killed and Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna even though he is told not to partake in the killing of Ikemefuna. Okonkwo panics when Ikemefuna turns to him and cries for help, and without thinking, Okonkwo slays Ikemefuna with his machete.

Nwoye and Okonkwo relation is complex having many different stages but just like Okonkwo and his father it become pieces. Nwoye and Okonkwo relation at the beginning was ruled by fear;Okonkwo had little to no problem using violence to reprimand his son to do work when he(Okonkwo) thought his son was being lazy. Leaving Nwoye feeling like a sad faced youth as he doesn’t know how to make his father happy since Okonkwo was a strong man that didn’t appear feminine. ”Okonkwo’s first son, Nwoye, was then twelve years old, but was already causing his father great anxiety for his incipient Laziness. At any rate, that was how