Things Fall Apart Response Paper
Chinua Achebe is a Nigerian novelist who created content that not only inspires but invokes sentiment regarding Western culture. He worked to create a perception of literature from African stories without the input of the European perspective. In his work, he used African characters to discuss the values and beliefs of African cultures. His best-known work is "Things Fall Apart" which focuses on Okonkwo, the leader of an Igbo village in Nigeria. The book tells the story of his life while showing us how the presence of European missionaries affected him as a leader and the village as a whole.
In Home and Exile, we are able to gain insight on Achebe's views regarding the topic of reclamation regarding African people. He writes that his hopes for the twenty-first century are that we are able to see the "first fruits of the balance of stories among the world's peoples." As we are currently in the twenty-first century, I question if this is something that ended up happening. In
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Okonkwo goes through many personal battles within his mind and his self. He struggles to find the right balance of following what he is destined and advised to do versus what he thinks is right. For example, Okonkwo was informed by Ogbuefi "that boy calls you father. Do not bear a hand in his death." The Oracle of the Hills and the Caves have pronounced that Ikemefuna to be killed. As the custom, he will be taken out of Umuofia, but he Okonkwo was to have nothing with it as he Ikemefuna calls him his father. Rather than carrying out with this task, Okonkwo informs Ikemefuna that he is to return home. On the walk home, Ikemefuna was hit with a machete and cries out "my father, they have killed me" while running to Okonkwo. But in a daze of fear, Okonkwo draws his machete and strikes Ikemefuna in fear of appearing as
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 has a very harsh personality where things need to be done the way he likes it. Okonkwos’s temper has been shown in the novel to get the better of him sometimes and it ends up getting him into trouble. Also Okonkwo has a masculinity complex that makes him feel the need to do anything that doesn’t make him seem feminine, even if that may be to kill somebody like Ikemefuna. The last lines of Ikemefuna in the novel were “My Father, they have killed me!”(Achebe 61) before Okonkwo drew his machete and took Ikemefuna’s life. Okonkwo said that he did this because he didn’t want to seem weak and feminine. Okonkwo was also warned by Ogbuefi Ezeudu not to take part in Ikemefuna’s death but he does it anyway. Okonkwo was also exiled because of an accidental murder of Ogbuefi Ezeudu’s daughter because Okonkwo’s gun went off without him actually shooting it. He had to leave Umofia for seven years and according to Okonkwo, when he left the clan became weak and eventually fell to the Christian...
Even though Okonkwo loves Ikemefuna and in some ways thinks more highly of him than his own son, he participates in his death because the oracle has decreed it, and he also does not want to be perceived as weak. After that, it was a sullen moment for him: “Okonkwo did not taste any food for two days after the death of Ikemefuna. He drank palm wine from morning till night, and his eyes were red and fierce like the eyes of a rat when it was caught by the tail and dashed against the floor”(Achebe 63). The death is absolutely traumatic to Okonkwo as it shakes his faith in the traditions that he has built his entire life and existence around. It conflicts many things he believes about himself in terms of his manliness and bravery. Achebe describes Okonkwo’s emotions in order to display a sense of hopelessness and despair to the
Unlike his father, Okonkwo is a hard worker with little debt and a driven personality. His internal fear leads to his decision to beat his wife during the week of peace and to take part in the mandatory action of killing his beloved son, Ikemefuna.
“They will take him outside Umofia, as is the custom, and kill him there. But I want you to have nothing to do with it. He calls you his father. (57)” This quote explains that Ogbuefi expresses concern for Okonkwo, because the Oracle explains how it would be wrongful of Okonkwo to kill Ikemefuna. “Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak. (61)” This quote portrays that Okonkwo completely disregarded what Ogbuefi and the Oracle cautioned him about, because he was too concerned about his status of what others thought of him. “At last the man was named and people sighed “E-u-u, Ezeudu is dead.” A cold shiver ran down Okonkwo’s back as he remembered the last time the old man had visited him. (121)” At this point in the story, it appears that Okonkwo is starting to realize his wrongdoings, primarily because he takes religion and his spiritual life very seriously, in regards towards the Oracle. Okonkwo begins to lose trust within his family, especially with Nwoye. (As mentioned in the previous paragraph.) In the beginning of the book, Okonkwo relied on Ikemefuna to help Nwoye become more masculine and tough. After Ogbuefi warns Okonkwo about taking part in the murder, Okonkwo thinks about what could happen to him once the gods find out. Once again, Okonkwo lets his emotions
The novel's setting is the deep dark dense forest of Nigeria in the Umuofia and Mbanta villages, home of the Igbo tribe. The time is around the turn of the 19th century. Through the course of the story Achebe's tone changes, in the beginning, it is descriptive, ironic and objective and directed towards the audience. (Okonkwo's fame has grown) “Like a bushfire in the Harmattan.”
Ikemefuna called Okonkwo father and Okonkwo treated Ikemefuna like a son he had him do things only the eldest son would do. It had been several years since Ikemefuna had come to stay with them but the elders had finally decided his fate, Okonkwo was forewarned not to partake by a wise man. Okonkwo being the man he is ignored the wise advice and went with them. Deep in the forest Ikemefuna was assaulted by his traveling companions and called out to Okonkwo “Father they have killed me”. Okonkwo filled with the fear of being thought “womanly” brought down his machete and cut off his head.
Achebe writes Things Fall Apart to revise the history that has been misplaced. He writes to the European and Western culture. This fact is evident because the book is written in English and it shows us the side of the African culture we wouldn’t normally see. Achebe is constantly ...
Education in Nigeria, Africa The novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Acheb, takes place during the 19th century in Nigerian a village. This novel takes the readers through the lives of Okonkwo and his family. Okonkwo the main character, is village hero and well-respected. He is afraid of becoming like his father: lazy and a failure.
Ikemefuna was Okonkwo’s “adopted” son. Ikemefuna and a little girl were taken away from their families in a neighboring village after a man from his village killed a man in Umuofia’s wife. Ikemefuna was given to Okonkwo as a peace offering and he fit in quite well with his new family. Okonkwo’s other sons were greatly influenced by Ikemefuna, and Ikemefuna’s relationship with Okonkwo was closer than that with his biological father. After three years of living with Okonkwo, Ikemefuna was told that he was going home. In reality, the oracle had told Okonkwo that Ikemefuna was to be killed. As Ikemefuna was on his journey “home” his innermost thoughts give his opinion
Before the arrival of the Europeans, Achebe did a excellent job portraying how the life of Igbo was before they were forced to oppose their own culture. To support this theme, Achebe included detailed descriptions of social rituals within each family, the justice system, religious practices and consequences, preparation and indulgence of food, the marriage process and the distributing of power within the men. Achebe shows how every man has an opportunity to prove himself worthy to achieve a title on the highest level, based merely on his own efforts. One may argue that the novel was written with the main focus on the study of Okonkwo’s character and how he deteriorates, but without the theme that define the Igbo culture itself, we would never know the universe qualities of the society that shaped Okonkwo’s life. The lives of the Igbo people was no different to the actual lives of the Ibos people back in the early days of Africa. Just like in Things Fall Apart, in actual African tribes there was never a ruler. “Very interesting thing about these villages is that there is no single ruler or king that controls the population. Decisions are made by including almost everyone in the village” (AfricaGuide). Using the theme, Achebe educated readers on by mirroring real African life in her
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.
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...
The greatest opponent in life is the one that is created inside the mind. As Okonkwo grows up, he decides to be the absolute antipodes of his father Unoka. Okonkwo perceives his father as a culmination of the weaknesses in man. In this erroneous view, Okonkwo buries his feelings deep within himself. When these emotions emerge, he views them as a sign of weakness. When Okonkwo participates in Ikemefuna's killing, he is deeply affected as he has ended the life of one who he grew to love as a son. Okonkwo is excessively depressed after the slaying, "not tasting any food for two days." (61) As he notices his confusion, he calls himself weak like a shivering old woman. In his emotionless show of strength after Ikemefuna's death, Okonkwo actually proves his frailty by hiding what he feels. Okonkwo is dominated by his private fear of appeari...
Achebe himself once said, "Language is a weapon and we use it, and there's no point in fighting it." ( Gallagher, The Christian Century, v114, 260) These are words that Achebe lives by. He stood by this statement throughout his entire career with a language style that would change African literature. was no exception. He accomplished his goal by writing about his own culture and his own family in a poetic, proverbic style. < qtd. in http://www.upress.state.ms.us/catalogs/books/c/html/conache.html > The unique language style of Things Fall Apart not only changed Achebe's career, but it also changed his country. Achebe himself once said, " Art is, and always was, at the service of man. Our ancestors created their myths and told their stories for a human purpose. Any good story, any good novel, should have a message, should have a purpose." < http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/achebe.html> Achebe used the "weapon" of language to convince "outsiders" that Nigeria is a nation with great potential.