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themes, settings and plot in chinua achebe's things fall apart
character summary of okonkwo
okonkwo's character analysis
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The Family Pediatrics Report proclaimed that “Families are the most central and enduring influence in children’s lives regardless of their education, composition, income, or values”. Therefore, familial relationships influence numerous aspects of a person’s life: actions, thoughts, and emotions. Okonkwo, a character in Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart, wholly portrays this concept through the impact made on his life by his father, Unoka. Achebe included the toxic relationship between Okonkwo and his father in order to display how it molded Okonkwo into a complex character who is strong yet fearful. As the protagonist, Okonkwo is the center of the historical fiction. Thus, the readers are allowed a deeper understanding of his personality, backstory, and how the two are interconnected. Okonkwo gains his complexity by way of his complicated relationship with his father. Unoka, described as a listless, improvident loafer, had “taken no title at all and he was heavily in debt” (Achebe 8) by the time he died. These characteristics caused his son to resent “his father’s failure and weakness” (13), and shaped him into the character seen throughout the novel. …show more content…
One of those things was gentleness and another was idleness” (Achebe 13). Essentially, Okonkwo did not want to be lazy and devoid of manliness like his father, so he worked to be strong and show prowess. As a result of the dedication to be strong, he developed a fear of weakness. In addition to harboring this fear, he used it to abuse his family for being weak, thus displaying his dominance and strength. Because of his father’s effeminateness and contemptible life, Okonkwo was plagued with a fear that drove him to be strong and pervaded every action he
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.
Okonkwo’s first and most distinctive flaw is his fear of failure. Many people would agree that this flaw is driven by the fear of becoming his father, but Okonkwo takes this fear too far. Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, was known for being a very lazy and carefree man. He also had notoriety of being “…poor and his wife and children had barely enough to eat.” (Achebe 5). A big tradition in Umuofia is having a father who is supposed to teach his children right and wrong. In Okonkwo’s case, these lessons had to be self-taught. Okonkwo had to commit to his own understandings of what defined a “good man” and to him that was the exact opposite of his father. Because of his fear to be seen as weak, Okonkwo even murders a child that calls him father. Ikemefuna was sent to live with Okonkwo because someone was murdered in a nearby village. An example of Okonkwo’s ill-hearted actions are shown in the following quote: “As the man drew up and raised his machete, Okonkwo looked away. He heard the blow. 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. He was afraid of being thought weak.” (Achebe 61). The fact that he kills Ikemefuna shows that his reputation is more important than the life of a child. Okonkwo’s fear permits him to receive more respect from his tribe, but only because it inclines him to do better than anyone else.
Okonkwo did not want to resemble his father, who owned important amounts of things to other members of the village and who had no titles. However, much of his life was dominated by fear, the fear of weakness and failure. This fear boosted one of his main goals: to become a revered member of the village, to possess many titles, and to attain anything demonstrating his reputation inside the community.
Okonkwo is not all that he may seem; as there is more than what meets the eye. Okonkwo is the primary protagonist within the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Okonkwo is a cruel yet kind man who has everything yet has nothing, which in turn creates a sympathetic character. A character such as Okonkwo has many facets; or masks if you will. Then we have his many influences: the Ibo culture; his father Unoka and of course his own personality. Then there is a staggering list of achievements. Okonkwo is a strong character but thinks only inwardly - especially towards his father - which will be discussed further in this essay.
Planet Earth harbors seven billion independent human minds, living seven billion independent, equally complex lives. Even more impressive, each mind contains unique perspectives and opinions. With so many different minds interacting, conflict between individuals’ perspectives and opinions becomes inevitable. Unfortunately, no single perspective, held by a single mind or a group of minds, dominates as the correct perspective. In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, the meeting of different cultures creates conflict between perspectives, in which both parties assume righteousness but neither is entirely correct. Though Okonkwo may draw a readers’ sympathy for his role as the tragic hero, the author’s sympathy sits with Obierika, who is positioned between the missionaries and Okonkwo as the most humane balance of the two cultures.
In the novel, Things Fall Apart, written by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo is a sympathetic character and unsympathetic character in regards to his family relationships with his adopted son, Ikemefuna, his daughter, Ezima, and his father, Unoka, as a result of he appears to genuinely care about his family; but, the pride within himself prevents his expression of such pride and concern openly.
The struggle between custom values and conversion is a universally applied theme to Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. The fable like, tragic tone of the work was set off from the very first page. The verb FALL APART has 4 senses to lose one's emotional or mental composure, go to pieces, break or fall apart into fragments, and to become separated into pieces or fragments. These are all exemplified in the novel Things Fall Apart. Okonkwo is a tragic hero in the traditional sense. His fate was decided for him and was unavoidable. Okonkwo’s inability to act rationally and express his feelings in a anthropological manner leads to his inescapable demise. Okonkwo exhibits the characteristics of a tragic hero not only by encompassing an unexceptional flaw. Okonkwo not only developed this flaw because of his erroneous equivalence of masculinity with being filled with relentless fury, vehemence, and impetuousness, but also because he leads to his own self-annihilation.
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. When the structure of Umuofia began to change, Okonkwo found himself incapable of adapting like the rest of the villagers. He was determined to live a life that could not survive the changing world, and his dreams crumbled down. Throughout the novel, Achebe demonstrates that the lack of being able to adapt to change will leave you lost in society.
Okonkwo resents his father because of his weakness and apparent failure; therefore, he worked diligently to ensure that he would become everything his father was not. Ironically, his first born son, Nwoye, developed much like Unoka, despite Okonkwo’s rash efforts to steer his son to model himself. Fear of being perceived as being weak and different drives Okonkwo’s rejection and anger towards his son when he becomes a Christian. Achebe states that after Okonkwo heard of Nwoye’s association with the christians he attacked him: “Nwoye turned round to walk into the inner, compound when his father, suddenly overcome with fury, sprang to his feet and gripped him by the neck,”(Achebe,151). Without his accumulated fear of weakness and judgement Okonkwo may have not acted as rashly to Nwoye’s new found faith. However, due to Nwoye’s resemblance of Unoka, his father, Okonkwo’s rationality is clouded by fear and resentment. As a father, Okonkwo can not accept, nor understand how he beget such a “degenerate and effeminate” son. Through this use of irony, Achebe once again emphasizes Okonkwo’s gripping fear and how it drives him to anger and otherwise unjustifiable
Okonkwo constantly plagues himself with the mindset of courage and bravery and consequently the expectation of this upon himself. By virtue of this, Okonkwo fears weakness in himself and other people. This stems from his father’s constant proneness to weakness. As his son, Okonkwo struggles to move away from the shadow of his father and to be his own person. Okonkwo resents him and had
In the book “Things Fall Apart”, evidence of a social structure was apparent within the Igbo community. This rigid social structure served as a purpose to balance the life of the people within the society, as well as promoting the downfall of the clan. The social structure was important in keeping a centralized society and preventing any sign of corruption within their clan. The social structure had advantages in keeping a balanced and equal society, supporting a division of labor, providing a surplus of food, individual huts, a communal society, and the development of some kind of government. In contrast, this social structure led others to reject to cooperate with the new religion and aided the lack of unity among the people. It also promoted a more patriarchal society, the inferior rank of women, and the lack of strong bonds between family members.
They must be seen strong and completely opposite of his father, Unoka. Ezinma is the only daughter of Ekwefi and “Okonkwo was [e]specially fond of [her]” (Achebe 44). Okonkwo admires Ezinma because she completely understands him and he likes whatever she does. The choice made by Achebe to make Okonkwo’s favorite child a girl reveals that Okonkwo’s life was destined to fall apart. Thus by analyzing the relationship between Okonkwo and Ezinma the reader can further understand the downfall of Okonkwo and the text as a whole. On the other end of the spectrum, there is Nwoye. At the end of the book, he abandons his father and changes his religion to follow Mr. Brown and the Christians. When Okonkwo thinks of his other children following him “[he] felt a cold shudder run down though him at the terrible prospect, like the prospect of annihilation” (Achebe 153). Nwoye is following a similar track to Unoka who Okonkwo is trying to place as far as possible away from him. This foil of close male relatives created by Achebe implies the inevitability of the collapse of Okonkwo’s life. Therefore, by analyzing Okonkwo’s relationship with his children the reader can further understand the text as a whole because the reader can see what Okonkwo’s family life is like and how that influences his
Although the reader feels remorseful for Okonkwo’s tragic childhood life. It is another reason to sympathize with a man who believes he is powerful and respected by many when in reality, he is feared by his own family and that is another reason that leads Okonkwo to his downfall. He started positive, motivated but down the line, Okonkwo treats his wife and children very harshly. When the author mentioned, “Okonkwo ruled his household with a heavy hand. His wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper, and so did his little children” (pg.13).
Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart is a powerful novel about the social changes that occurred when the white man first arrived on the African continent. The novel is based on a conception of humans as self-reflexive beings and a definition of culture as a set of control mechanisms. Things Fall Apart is the story of Okonkwo, an elder, in the Igbo tribe. He is a fairly successful man who earned the respect of the tribal elders. The story of Okonkwo’s fall from a respected member of the tribe to an outcast who dies in disgrace graphically dramatizes the struggle between the altruistic values of Christianity and the lust for power that motivated European colonialism in Africa and undermined the indigenous culture of a nation.
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a story about personal beliefs,customs, and also a story about an identity confliction. There is struggle between family, culture, and religion of the Ibo tribes. It shows how things fall apart when these beliefs and customs are challenged and how a personal identity changes for a man. The novel concerns the life of Okonkwo, a leader and local wrestling champion throughout the villages of the Ibo ethnic group of Umuofia in Nigeria, Africa, his three wives, and his children. Throughout the novel, Okonkwo is internally challenged and slowly becomes someone that is no longer recognizable by his friends or his family. When Okonkwo faces change, his identity starts to fade.