Research Paper
Its the third leading cause of death in college students, it's also the second leading cause of death amongst teenagers, More teenagers and young adults die from than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia, influenza, and chronic lung disease, combined, It is suicide. After reading Things Fall Apart and Antigone it became apparent on how just important suicide played in the plot of each of these stories, and how hopelessness was a factor in the suicides of characters such as Okonkwo from Things Fall Apart , Haemon, and queen Eurydice from Antigone. I chose the topic of hopelessness and how that plays into suicide, because of not only my personal experiences but because of just how obvious the effect hopelessness had on the characters. In the Greek tragedy Antigone and the novel Things Fall Apart it is evident that the one major similarity suicide victims have in common is that they gave up hope in themselves and lost sight of what life is really about.
In the novel Things Fall Apart, suicide plays a major role in the outcome of the story. Everything that the main character, Okonkwo, once knew had changed drastically resulting in his suicide. He was a well renowned warrior and was one of the many chiefs in his clan, he had land, 3 wives, and upwards of 25 children between them. But, all the changes started when a white missionary visited his village. After the white man shows up everything goes south for Okonkwo and his family, Okonkwo accidentally kills a man and is banished for 7 years and he lost everything including his land and his title. Okonkwo is devastated by the loss of his social status and is struck by grief. Achebe wrote, “ Work no longer had for him [Okonkwo] the same pleas...
... middle of paper ...
...s display the topic of suicide but also because Haemon, Queen Eurydice, and Okonkwo all lost something that was precious to them. Okonkwo watched as his village was taken over by the white man and he was helpless to stop it. he tried to rally his fellow tribesmen and attack the christian but his plan failed almost immediately. In the end Okonkwo watched his culture and his beliefs disappear and be replaced by the white man's own beliefs and okonkwo couldn't handle it so he took his life. In Antigone Haemon stumbled upon his fiance’s, Antigone, lifeless body hanging from the ceiling of her tomb and his loss of his love sparked his desire to end his life. Once Harmon's mother, Queen Eurydice, received word of the loss of her son she immediately became grief stricken and cursed Creon with her dying breath saying that he was the cause of all the pain and suffering.
...f civil disobedience causes a tragic domino effect. Antigone commits suicide. Haemon, who is Creon's son and Antigone's fiancé, is torn apart by grief and kills himself. Haemon's mother and Creon's wife, Eurydice, learns of her son's death. She becomes despondent and takes her own life: "She drove home to the heart with her own hand, once she learned her son was dead" (Antigone 1440-1441). Her words do end many things. The law is banished. Her brother is allowed to be buried, but now he is accompanied by three others.
Although undenialably couragous, determined, and brave. She has an achilles heel that makes her arrogant. She is unwilling to back off her quest, in burying her beloved brother. No matter if she must work alone and alienate herself in order to do so. To ensure she buries her kin with honor. “I will not press you any more. I would not want you as a partner if you asked. Go to what you please. I go to bury him. How beautiful to die in such pursuit! To rest loved by him whom I have loved, sinner of a holy sin, With longer time to charm the dead than those who live, for I shall abide forever there. So go. And please your fantasy and call it wicked what the gods call good”(Antigone 194). /she goes as far as breaking the law, presenting herself as a uncompromising person, similar to that of King Creon. Sadly her achilles heel is not from her doing. Other characters have influenced her into rushed decisions. For example Creon’s cruel punishments and brutality causes Antigone to want to bury her brother. Ismene’s refusal to help bury their beloved brother makes Antigone more determined and persistent to bury him. Eventually leading to Antigone’s suicide. She had hung herself, when Haemon (her love) saw her he stabbed himself and lied next to her in her pool of blood. Then when Eurydice(Haemon’s mother) found out she cut her throat in her bedroom. Creon was now alone. The chorus notes that if it were not
To many teens, suicide may be the idea of escaping from their reality. They gain this overwhelming sense that if they are dead, everything will be better. But will it really? Teenage suicide has become more and more of an increasing contention in recent times. Even more so since the times of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet has the suicide epidemic evolved. What started as a every so often thing you would see on the news has turned into something you hear about more often than you should. Suicide has become a common way of escape and dealing with problems for teenagers, along with many other groups of people. As for in Romeo and Juliet, this is exactly what happens. Romeo and Juliet both use suicide as their way of coping and escaping from what
In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo was one of the strongest proponents of violence against the white missionaries. Throughout the book, he advocated for violence while be outnumbered by his fellow natives who objected. Near the end of the book, he had had enough. During a village meeting gathered to discuss what to do about the white missionaries, a messenger for the missionaries arrived to tell them the meeting had been ordered to be stopped. “In a flash Okonkwo drew his machete. The messenger crouched to avoid the blow. It was useless. Okonkwo’s machete descended twice and the man’s head lay beside his uniformed body”.3 The man had been killed. Shortly after, Okonkwo hanged himself on a tree. Violence was by far the most disruptive response to to the presence of white missionaries in Africa. It was the only response that led to deaths. Not only was the violence disruptive, it was also ineffective. In the last paragraph of the book, the Commissioner of the missionaries articulated how Okonkwo’s actions would make a good paragraph in the book he planned to write. Violence against missionaries was disruptive and led to death for both the locals and the
It challenged his identity by losing his high title in the clan due to the change in the village as well as new customs. He responded to the clash of cultures by attempting to encourage others to fight in his mission to get rid of the Western influences in the Ibo community. Because he failed to do so, he lost hope and refused to accept the new culture which caused him to hang himself. The conflict between Okonkwo and his clan’s decision to change their way of living was portrayed through characterization and plot development. Achebe gives the people of Africa a voice with Okonkwo’s character who stayed true to his roots. In Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe reveals to us Okonkwo’s response as the cultural collision of the English and Ibo challenged his sense of
...ut her son’s death, she goes and slits her throat. Creon then feels Antigone’s direct action when he is all alone at the end of the play. His edict caused so much pain in suffering for his family, he led them all to suicide.
Okonkwo is often described as being similar to characters in Greek tragedies. Okonkwo knew that the end of his clan was coming, and that they would do nothing to prevent it from happening. He took his life out of desperation. He had struggled his whole life to become a respected member of his community, and suddenly his world is turned upside down and changed forever because of an accident. Okonkwo sees that he is fighting a losing battle, so he quits. Suicide was one of the biggest offenses that could be committed against the earth, and Okonkwo?s own clansmen could not bury him. Okonkwo?s death symbolizes the end of patriarchy in Umuofia. The last page of the book is from the point of view of the white Commissioner, who notes that he wants to include a paragraph on Okonkwo?s life in his book entitled The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of Lower Niger. Okonkwo?s struggles, triumphs and defeats are all reduced to a paragraph, much like his culture and society will be reduced.
Some survivors aren’t about to accept the readjustment of the sudden lost and coupled with the suffering experience through grief can find suicide as they only solution. The theme of the loss of a loved can cause the survivor the commit suicide is seen in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, but isn’t shown as expected. Suicide in today’s society impacts the United States both financially and socially with heavy costs in medical bills and destroy relationships between the surviving member and the deceased loved one. The grieving process is a path where one can find themselves with their wounds healed or as an emotional crippled individual at the edge of their
In the novel Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo is portrayed as a respected and determined individual whose fatal flaw eventually works against him. Throughout the novel the readers are shown that Okonkwo has many of these Characteristics because he is obsessed with the idea of becoming just like his father. This becomes his flaw in the novel that puts him into exile and makes it hard for him to adjust to the changes that were made with in his village.
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a brilliant novel because of its description of Okonkwo’s fall from prominence. However, even though Okonkwo was a brilliant wrestler, he hated the sullen life of his father, a man who had many debts throughout his life. As a father, Okonkwo fears that his son, Nwoye, is not masculine enough to become successful in the clan. Fear becomes recurring theme in the novel, and it plays a gigantic role in Okonkwo’s death. In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo’s fear is the driving force behind many of his actions, including his own death.
In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo is an influential leader in his tribe. Okonkwo is driven by his fear of becoming weak and unmanly, much like father. He achieves social and financial success by being motivated by these ideals. Achebe's, Things Fall Apart takes place in Nigeria in the late 19th century. Achebe suggests that fear is devastating to one’s well being.
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
This culminates in Okonkwo’s suicide the main tragedy of the novel which is representative of a deeper tragedy of a culture’s nearing end. Throughout the novel Okonkwo causes those around him to endure many hardships. His actions have serious consequences that affect both him and the tribe as a whole. As the novel progresses his flaws get the best of him again and again and when he can take it no more he commits suicide. This act of complete disgrace towards his tribe leaves the reader with the impression of something much more profound than and end to a man’s life. It is symbolic of his entire culture’s end. Okonkwo was one of the most firm believers of his culture’s values and his death represents the end the resistance of the white man. The novel shifts to the perspective of the District Commissioner as if to say that they have won, and their dominance is inevitable now. The fall of Okonkwo and the imminent fall of Umuofia is slice of life in Nigeria and many other parts of Africa during the colonial period. The novel presents both the positive and negative side of cultures intermingling and raises the question of whether cultures mixing is ultimately a beneficial process or leads to the erasure of culture
...e world that you can name” (237) Creon receives a very similar punishment. He too, loses all he deems valuable in the world. Creon will not allow Haemon to marry Antigone. He condemns their marriage and greatly distresses his son, Haemon. As a result of Creon’s actions, Haemon commits suicide, “his blood spilled by his very hand” (120). Eurydice, Creons’s wife, also kills herself. She is so wracked with anguish by Haemon’s suicide, that she “stabbed herself at the altar” (126). Creon “murdered… his son… and his wife.” (127). He has nowhere to “lean to for support” (127) and no-one to “look to” (127). The chorus sums up his and Oedipus’s fate when they say “ The mighty words of the proud are paid in full with mighty blows of fate, and at long last those blows will teach us wisdom” (128)
His society was complacent to change, content to surrender its traditions to a different culture. In killing the messenger at the end of the novel, Okonkwo was looking to save the culture that had fallen apart long before that moment. And like his culture before him, he fell apart when no one else resisted. Whether or not he had hanged himself, under British rule, he would still have been dead. Works Cited Achebe, Chinua.