Okonkwo Colonization

colonization was a very popular activity in the 19th century. It tore apart villages, and separate religions. Weather it was good or bad, it had a major effect on the places were it took place. In the book, things fall apart, by Chinua Achebe, colonization is a huge factor in the progression of the novel. The main character, Okonkwo, experienced the biggest internal troubles of all of the people in the book. In the wake of the new ere, the white people appeared in their land. Okonkwo was very opposed to them and their religion. He feels that the people i his clan are cowards for following their religion, and in the end takes his owl life due to his sorrow in his people. The author uses this book to show that there are 2 sides to the story

Yet all of this valor does not define his personality. With his success, one would think his children would look up to him. In this case, Okonkwo's children live in fear of his heavy hand. One is dead from his irrational thinking, and one ran away because if his threats of murder. Okonkwo is impulsive, as he acts before he thinks. This comes up many times in the story, like beat his wife for cutting a leave of a tree for food. “Without further argument okonkwo gave her a sound beating”.(38) This is one of many instances were in a non impulsive brain, he could have thought the situation through and just realize that the tree hadn't been dead, and it was merely just a leaf that had been cut off. Okonkwo's life is driven by his thought of being the manliest man with the most yams. He has no regard for females emotions, and if a male shows any sign of remorse or sensitivity, he sees them as female. He is this way, because he did not want to take after his deadbeat father. As it is said on page 13, “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” (13). This comes out in the book more than anything, and is eventually confronted when he was kicked out of his village and sent to another,

The point of the book was to show the point of view about colonization of the african peoples.the book did so well in showing the point of view, that he was able to incorporate multiple opinions and reactions, all from the african people. Okonkwo's reactions on the other hand, push the boundaries of rational. As most of the other citizens widely accepted the christians and their religion, okonkwo saw evil and danger, as well as femininity in them. He hated them with a flying passion, due to reasons stated in paragraph 2. Okonkwo's point of view on the white men is a very important one, in that he is a very popular man in his community, and people look up to him. The reaction of Okonkwo is so highly covered in the novel, because his feelings differ from the white men, and that is the biggest point of the novel. A good example of a reaction by okonkwo, would be “Why, he cried in his heart, should he, Okonkwo, of all people, be cursed with such a son”. He says this in context of his son running away after okonkwo figures out that he has converted to this religion that the white people have come along with, and changed everyone's minds. A big moment in the very end of the book, that shines light on his emotions as one of the colonized, is on page 207: “they came to the tree from which Okonkwo's body was dangling”. Okonkwo had hung himself, due to the sorrow and shame brought to him by the colonizers.