Things Fall Apart Analysis Essay

Improved Essays
EA 3.2
Literary Analysis: character analysis
Is a person wrong for wanting to keep their traditions and live by them? The Igbo people are people of war. They thrive through the blood of those who had done them wrong. They had their own complex society in which others from the outside world wouldn't understand. They lived in peace until a missionary came to the village. He proclaimed that what they do is wrong and that God will judge them on judgement day. The igbo people thought the missionary was crazy and didn't listen to him. The missioner would not give up he would speak of God's word to save his brothers and sisters from the flames of hell. His work was starting to work for some of the Igbo people started to question thing and were in a confused place of mind. The book has shown us that Okonkwo has struggled with the new changes and advances the plot by ending his misery.
Okonkwo is one of Umiofias fiercest warriors and lead their wars to victory, he is a man with violent tendencies unfortunately that is all he knows, stuck in a shell where violence proves a male is truly a man. ¨I take a stick and break his head. That is what a man does. (158/6). His violent tendencies has had lead him to make bad decisions in his life which advances the plot when he has to deal with consequences. ¨Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down.¨ (61/2). He also has a fear with showing femininity and looks down on men who do not have the same titles as him. He thinks that those type of men are weak especially those who are lazy. Therefore he is constantly wanting to prove that his is a true man, which ties back into his violent ways. His first reaction of the missionaries first encounter was denial and later progressed into giving up. ¨He had lost his chance to lead his war like clan against the new religion, which he was told, had gained ground.¨ (171/2). His reaction to the missionaryś story, about their religion and ways were wrong, was that the missionary was crazy and those who believed in his silly stories were weak individuals who have betrayed their ancestors. His
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“Worthy men are no more”. Okonkwo sighed as he remembered those days.” (200/2). Okonkwo was remembering the days were his fellow comrades would fight along side with him and be victorious. Now they are all broken apart and have given up in the hands of the whiten men. He thinks the the people all turned into, what he thinks, women. Which shows he is in fear of converting and giving up his ways because it will cause him to be a woman himself. If he were to follow the new religion he would give up his status and everything he has worked for. Even though he lost everything when killing a person by accident. “He knew that Umuofia would not go to war.” (205/1). He has affected the text from his actions of of fear of change. Without he has fought throughout the entire book, giving his comrades motivation to fight against the new religion ,and to not give up. They all failed him in the end. As explained earlier he gave up. He realized that his people and him were not the warriors they once

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