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Fame In Things Fall Apart

analytical Essay
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Everyone lives a different life, makes a different amount of money, handles business different, has a different perspective on life, everyone does everything differently. Not everybody is at the higher superior as you may think they are. Just because your name might mean more than the next does not mean you get treated differently than the next. Fame and Wealth comes with just that, fame being you get recognition for the things you do, and wealth not necessarily meaning in terms of money but being very “abundant” of something in my opinion. Holding the title of being “wealthy and having fame” does not mean you get treated differently. Fame does not play a part in how you get treated as a person. In Chinua Achebe's novel “Things Fall Apart” …show more content…

In chapter 7, it quotes, “Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak.” During this time Okonkwo’s tribesmen were set out on hurting Ikemefuna but Okonkwo felt he was being looked upon as a weak person so he took the action of killing Ikemefuna after being told not to. The author, Achebe, shows characterization by showing what kind of person Okonkwo can be, which is disobedient, and heartless. Because of his actions he has now affected his actual son back home. This comes to show how others can be affected by your actions. Another point we can analyze from this is that he took action because he thought his peers would look at him as being “weak” which should not matter as long as you know your self worth. The author also wants us to understand that when you hold an abundant amount of authority you still have to understand your consequences despite if you like them or not and those repercussions may affect those around you to. In chapter 13, Okonkwo has to move himself and his family to another location after his tragedy of killing Ezeudu’s son. As quoted, “The only course open to Okonkwo was to flee from the clan. It was a crime against the earth goddess to kill a classman and a man who committed it must flee from the clan.” The plot has now taken a turn which engages you more because, even …show more content…

I feel he names this book “Things Fall Apart” because in the beginning everyone is so happy and joyful and then as it goes on deaths are happening from the least person that you’d expect it to happen. This comes to show not only does fame and wealth get you nowhere but you get punished exactly how others would, maybe even more. Also, another point we may draw from this is do not let your peers actions push you toward wanting to take the same actions. Think about how Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna, that affected his actual son and his family. Achebe throws so many cutting edge points at you that you would least expect it and I think that the actions taken in this book makes you think about what will happen next, or “wow, I’d never expect him to do that.” Never let the fame and wealth get to your head, you must look past that and see yourself as others view

In this essay, the author

  • Analyzes how in chinua achebe's "things fall apart" expresses the need to punish people no matter their wealth or fame in life.
  • Analyzes how achebe shows characterization by showing how okonkwo can be, which is disobedient, and heartless.
  • Analyzes how achebe draws you back into the story with his intriguing ways as it takes a turn for the worst. okonkwo knows his power in the village and knows that his punishment would be crucial.
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  • An Overview of Chinua Achebe's 'Things Fall Apart'
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  • Allusions To Things Fall Apart
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    Things fall apart. It is life things eventually fall apart. Achebe named his book about a man learning from his failures and his punishments becoming a better man because his life is falling apart. Achebe named his book Things Fall Apart which is an allusion to the poem “Second Coming” which is about an end of the world scenario. He used it as an allusion to make a connection between Okonkwo’s life “ending” from his point of view and the second coming end of world scenario of the Christians.

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    • Analyzes how achebe named his book things fall apart as an allusion to the poem "second coming" which is about an end of the world scenario.
    • Explains that achebe named his book "things fall apart" after the poem "second coming" because of similarities between the second coming of the christians and okonkwo's life.
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  • Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart
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    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.

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    • Analyzes how okonkwo is a tragic hero in chinua achebe's novel things fall apart. aristotle defines tragic heroes as good men of high status who display tragic flaws and experience dramatic reversals.
    • Analyzes how 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 unproductive life and disgraceful death.
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  • Character Analysis Of Okonkwo
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    It is another to sympathies for 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 wives 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). This is not power but a weakness when Okonkwo uses power to rule his own house, detaching himself from the emotional connection with this family rather than being frightening to live with. The sign of “gentleness” as like his father means weakness to Okonkwo even with his own family. Especially his wives, when the narrator demonstrated the lack of emotion to his wife, “Okonkwo was provoked to justifiable anger by his young wife, went to plait her hair at her friend’s house and did not return early enough to cook the afternoon meal… He walked back to his obi to await Ojiugo’s return. And when she returned he beat her very heavily. In his anger he had forgotten that it was the Week of Peace…But Okonkwo was not the man to stop beating somebody half –way through, not even for fear of a goddess” (pg.29-30). Okonkwo does not even fear the goddess and the Week of Peace and ends up beating his wife to show that he owes

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    • Analyzes how chinua achebe's "things fall apart" depicts okonkwo as a tragic hero who accomplished his success by hard work and the dedication to never end up like his father.
    • Analyzes how okonkwo is a wealthy man who can provide for his three wives and children unlike his father unoka, who was idle, poor, broke, and pathetic.
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  • Okonkwo Chapter 4
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    In the beginning chapters (Chapter 4) Okonkwo did not have a very good relationship with his two sons. He was a slightly more caring man when Ikemefuna was sick. But when they were assisting him in planting the seeds for the crops all he did was belittle them and make them feel bad about themselves and how they were completing the task at hand. By the end of this group of chapters (Chapter 7), his sons had loosened up to him and seemed to feel more open to how they had been treated. Although how Okonkwo acted was not okay, the relationship between them did strengthen and as he became more proud of his son, specifically Ikemefuna, he grew to like Okonkwo more. The end of the chapter however, showed that deep down the true colors of Okonkwo shined

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    • Analyzes how okonkwo's relationship with his two sons was not good, but he became more proud of his son, ikemefuna. his desire to not seem weak overpowered his kindness towards others.
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  • Comparing the Second Coming and to Things Fall Apart
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    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.”

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    • Compares chinua achebe's "things fall apart" to yeats' "the second coming" and explains how the book reveals an apocolypse.
    • Analyzes how okonkwo ends his life as a last resort to avoid changes that come along. he kills himself to dodge the pain and suffering that christianity brought to his culture.
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  • Things Fall Apart Okonkwo Analysis
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    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. Okonkwo does this because in the split second where Ikemefuna runs to Okonkwo for protection, Okonkwo is overpowered with fear of being seen as weak and kills Ikemefuna. This is an unwise act on behalf of Okonkwo, and as a result, he suffers emotionally in the next few days. He enters a stage of depression and cannot eat or sleep as all he can think about is what he has done to Ikemefuna. It is at this point that things start t...

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    • Analyzes how chinua achebe's novel, things fall apart, follows the tragic life of okonkwo, who suffers a miserable fate due to the fear of failure.
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  • Okonkwo's Failure
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    Okonkwo’s determination to succeed in life and to not fail leads to his fatal downfall in the end of the novel. His inability to adapt to colonization and his failure to follow the morals of many of the morals of the Ibo culture also are an important key leading to his downfall. Okonkwo was willing to go to war against the missionaries, with or without the clan. He made it clear that he believed the missionaries were in the wrong for trying to change Umuofia. Since the clan wanted no part in the war with the missionaries, Okonkwo took action into his own hands and murdered the head messenger. During the killing of the messenger, Okonkwo had a moment of realization: “He knew that Umuofia would not go to war. He knew because they had let the other messengers escape. They had broken into tumult instead of action” (Achebe 205). Okonkwo finally understands that he doesn’t have support from his fellow clansmen anymore and he feels as if he loses his place in society. Instead of backing up Okonkwo and his decision to murder the messenger, the clan stood in both confusion and disorder and questioned, “ ‘Why did [Okonkwo] do it?’ ” (Achebe 205). Okonkwo’s impulsiveness causes the clansmen to question Okonkwo’s violent actions against the messenger. Throughout the entire novel, Okonkwo struggles to accept the missionaries and the changes that they

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    • Analyzes how okonkwo's fear of failure and weakness stems from his father, unoka, and his inability to succeed during his life.
    • Analyzes how okonkwo's actions towards his wives and ikemefuna show his inability to control his acts and temper which are fueled by his fear of failure and weakness.
    • Analyzes how okonkwo's fear of being judged by the elders and being thought of as weak led him to kill ikemefuna.
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