• Home Page
  • Theme Of Primitive In Things Fall Apart

Theme Of Primitive In Things Fall Apart

Improved Essays
Show More
“In Umuofia’s latest war he was the first to bring home a human head” (page 10). This is one of the lines in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart that make the story extremely primitive. The story is set in the 1890’s, where things are very different than they are in today’s world. Throughout the book Okonkwo and his tribe live in huts, he beats not only his wife but his kids, and beheads many people; and kill people. He also has numerous wives, or polygamy. Many of the people of the Umuofia tribe also stick to their customs when the British come in and indirectly rule them. Instead of industrializing the people of this tribe stay true to their customs, and many of them do not stray. All of these acts are not primitive today and would get …show more content…
One action that takes place in the story that makes it primitive, is the constant beating that takes place. Okonkwo beats his children and his three wives constantly throughout the book. Okonkwo gets very irriated easily and any little thing his children or wife did, he felt as though they should be punished. According to page 11, Okonkwo was not a cruel man but he had a fear for fear and weakness, which made him rule with a steady hand. His children and wives were terrified of him. Okonkwo beat his son for crying when he is told Ikemefuna will be leaving. I understand that in today’s life people use violence as an answer, but today if you are to cause physical harm to someone you face severe consequences. In the story when Okonkwo harms his wife or children, the other members of the tribe look in the other direction and pretend that they have not seen anything. This is just one example of how Okonkwo and his tribe remain primitive through the …show more content…
“In Umuofia’s latest war he was the first to bring home a human head. That was the fifth head; and he was not an old man yet. On great occasions such as the funeral of a village celebrity he drank his palm-wine from his first human head” (page 10). Nowadays killing is extremely illegal and you will be sentenced to jail for quite sometime if you commit such a crime. In Okonkwo’s time though, this was looked upon as an act of bravery and courage to your tribe. They saw it as Okonkwo trying to make a name for himself and the Umuofia tribe. Also, Okonkwo chooses to participate in the killing of Ikemefuna even though the boy calls him “father.” This is primitive because Okonkwo is sticking to his customs even though he feels emotion and compassion for the young boy. I also think Okonkwo is primitive because the story talks about how he mourns the thought of his twins that he was forced to leave in the forest due to tribal traditions. This is also an example of how he stuck to his customs and remained

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Okonkwo Change Quotes
    • 800 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Okonkwo Change Quotes

    The first thing the book focused on being how Okonkwo didn’t want to be anything like his father. Okonkwo thought of himself as an independent leader of the Umuofia clan. He looks at his father to be lazy, not being able to support his family and a coward. The reason why Okonkwo acted the way he did is because he didn’t want to resemble anything his father did. Okonkwo…

    • 800 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    Okonkwo Culture Collision
    • 1055 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Okonkwo Culture Collision

    In his culture, being anything but a strong, titled man was a disgraceful thing to be. Due to his fear, he became an established warrior who acted towards the overall good of the tribe and did everything he could to be an ideal Ibo tribe member. This is shown when the author says, “Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond. His fame rested on solid personal achievements” (3). Okonkwo’s happiness came from his status in Umuofia because he was incredibly insecure about his position in society. His actions led all of Umuofia to recognize his achievements and respect him as an authority figure. But, they lost respect when he was exiled for seven years to his mother’s village. Everything he worked for was rooted in one simple thing; his father, Unoka, and his way of life. These goals are further explained when Achebe states, “Unoka, the grown-up, was a failure” (5). Later, he speaks of how this influenced Okonkwo by saying, “And so Okonkwo was ruled by one passion-to hate everything that his father Unoka had loved. One of those things was gentleness and another was idleness” (13). This shows why Okonkwo acted the way he did. He had a very short temper, and “ruled his house with a heavy hand” (13). Because of how ashamed Okonkwo was of his father’s standing in the tribe, he lived to be everything Unoka wasn’t. This meant he came across as cruel, strict, and an…

    • 1055 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Theme Of Cultural Collision In Things Fall Apart
    • 1136 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Theme Of Cultural Collision In Things Fall Apart

    As Okonkwo had returned to Umuofia, the colonizers had infested his village leaving Okonkwo, “...deeply grieved,” leading him to, “...[mourn] for [his] clan, which he saw breaking up and falling apart....for the warlike men of Umuofia, who had so unaccountably become soft like women” (183). Obviously, Okonkwo was greatly depressed at the loss of his clan because their old traditions were slowly coming to an end with the arrival of the colonizers with their new religion and missionaries trying to convert people. He was deeply concerned with his village and traditions so to see it all crumble and fall away to nothing lead him to resent the colonizers because it was their fault for mingling with the members in Umuofia to convert them. Okonkwo’s resentment led him to kill a messenger that was a colonizer but when Umuofia was thrown into a panic and not immediately planning for war, Okonkwo saw the path his village had gone down and he decided to end his own life. Shortly after the death of the messenger the district commissioner arrived at Okonkwo’s house demanding to see him so the people gathered together to mourn him in his obi led him, “....to the tree from which Okonkwo’s body was dangling…”(207). Okonkwo became so discouraged from fighting and the way Umuofia was falling apart, because of the colonizers, that he had commit suicide which was seen as…

    • 1136 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    How Does Okonkwo Change In Things Fall Apart
    • 756 Words
    • 4 Pages

    How Does Okonkwo Change In Things Fall Apart

    Okonkwo does not want change. His view of masculinity and personal validation come from the traditions of his people. Okonkwo is also afraid of losing his social status that he has worked so hard to obtain. While talking to the rest of his children Okonkwo says, “You have all seen the great abomination of your brother. He is no longer my son...I will only have a son who is a man”(172). Okonkwo is so stuck in his ways that he is willing to disown his son because he changed his religious beliefs. He is unwilling to think about change without getting upset. When Okonkwo was exiled and heard about the news of christian missionaries coming into Umuofia, he was convinced that Umuofia would be able to handle the white men swiftly and looked forward to being a part of it. However when he got back that was not the case. The text says, “Umuofia was like a startled animals erect… not knowing which way to run”(196) The white men recruited enough citizens of Umuofia, specifically those who were at low positions of their society and those who questioned the previous religion, to severely weaken the village’s effectiveness. The new ways of Umuofia were too different from what Okonkwo had established in his youth. Okonkwo was not comply with the traditions of the new Umuofia, so he killed himself. Therefore, making his non acceptance to change a factor in the downfall of his…

    • 756 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Thomas C. Foster's How To Read Literature Like A Professor, By Chinua Achebe
    • 889 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Thomas C. Foster's How To Read Literature Like A Professor, By Chinua Achebe

    These traditions are like a double edged sword, for he loves and pushes for tradition to stay through the European Influence, but these very traditions also hurt Okonkwo by making his life arduous. It is tradition that got Okonkwo banished from Umuofia for seven years, it is tradition that got his adopted son Ikemefuna killed, and it is the inconceivable loss of his culture he loved and had pride in that got himself killed(61, 124, 207 Achebe). Therefore, it can argued that the very thing he was trying to protect was the cause of his own…

    • 889 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Stereotypes In Things Fall Apart
    • 864 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Stereotypes In Things Fall Apart

    Throughout the novel Okonkwo is seen as the villain in the eyes of many, although he is the main character. During the Week of Peace Okonkwo “committed a great evil” by beating his wife and “could have ruined the whole clan” (Achebe 30). Knowing the rules of the ceremonial week and even after being begged to stop by his wife’s Okonkwo still beats his 3rd wife vigorously in fear of no one not even a God. The traditional week could have been told by only giving why it was celebrated and what was done for it but instead Okonkwo not only is seen as the villain but put to shame and threatened to be dragged across the street in order to maintain an unbiased opinion. The women of Umuofia are treated with no respect, have no self worth, and no affection is given towards them. Ekwefi Okonkwo’s second wife makes a remark about her husband’s shooting skills after just being beaten, Okonkwo has no regard for his wife and violently shoots his gun at her, “nearly missing her face” (Achebe 39). If women were seen with respect they would not be beaten by their husbands for behaving badly, let alone shot at for making a sarcastic comment under their breath. If Okonkwo had respect not only towards his wife but his child’s mother he would…

    • 864 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Dictatorship In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart
    • 218 Words
    • 1 Pages

    Dictatorship In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

    In Chinua Achebe’s book Things Fall Apart, he tells the story of a man named Okonkwo whose life is ruled by the fear of being masculine and able to care for his family. Through the book we see how Okonkwo rules his household like a dictatorship, seeing his family as property. Due to Okonkwo seeing his family as possessions he is able to justify that it is okay for him to beat his wives and children. Okonkwo has prominent relationships with three of his children: Ikemefuna, Eznima, and Nwoye. Okonkwo expects perfection from his children, that his boys will not grow to be feminine and that the girls will grow beautiful and smart. The cause of Okonkwo’s fear of being feminine, lazy, and unable to provide for his family comes from his father Unoka.…

    • 218 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Okonkwo's Savagery
    • 870 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Okonkwo's Savagery

    The trepidation that Okonkwo felt caused him to kill Ikemefuna, as a way to to run away from his own fears, and his justification of being unmanly if he were to fail, presenting him as savage. Okonkwo partakes in the premeditated murder of Ikemefuna, as the village oracle commands it and Okonkwo’s conflicting dismay of losing his masculinity if he did not partake in it,”Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down”(61). This presents Okonkwo’s dread of disobeying someone with more authority, and a sense of femininity, causing him to kill Ikemefuna. Because of Okonkwo’s foreboding sense of something bad bestowing on him if he were to anger his goddess, he felt the need to partake in the murder of Ikemefuna, someone who regards him as a father figure. This displays how Okonkwo is inherently savage, because he rather sacrifice someone else, then face the punishments bestowed upon him, demonstrating his savage nature. He is also conflicted by thinking he may become soft if he did not partake in Ikemefuna’s murder, displaying his unease of losing his strong image and become like his father, who is the opposite of himself thus providing more reason to commit such savage act. Besides fear driving Okonkwo to commit savage acts and the display of his savage nature, anger is also a leading factor for…

    • 870 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    Theme Of Exile In Things Fall Apart
    • 1220 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Theme Of Exile In Things Fall Apart

    When Okonkwo is forced to uproot his life and family from their Umuofia compound and relocate to his motherland, Mbanta, he struggles to identify and understand the ways of the local tribe. After Okonkwo is cast out of the village he called home, the narrator claims, “he had been cast out of his clan like a fish onto a dry, sandy beach” (131). This analogy comparing Okonkwo’s exile to a fish gasping for breath on dry land captures how his relocation is like being forced to survive in unfamiliar territory. While he could’ve used his time away from Umuofia to reflect on and ponder his choices, Okonkwo, instead, focuses on and repeatedly reminds himself that the people of Mbanta aren’t as fierce, and therefore respectable, as those of his fatherland. When the white missionaries arrive in Mbanta and begin to establish their presence, Okonkwo is disgusted by the clan’s compliance and apprehension towards the new settlers. He claims that “this was a womanly clan…such a thing could never happen in his fatherland” (159). After constantly comparing the two clans’ cultures, Okonkwo’s choice to holdfast to his beliefs signifies his refusal to alter his ways and adapt to the changes in Mbanta. This decision further drowns him when he returns to Umuofia. Like Mbanta, Umuofia has also been influenced by the arrival of the missionaries. Okonkwo goes back and sees how his beloved tribe’s cultural traditions and beliefs were falling apart. He “mourned for the warlike men of Umuofia, who had so unaccountably become soft like women” (183). As the only man who still feels as though the clans should rebel and drive out the missionaries, Okonkwo sets himself apart from the clan he once identified with by refusing to modify his principles when more…

    • 1220 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    Analysis Of Okonkwo's Fall In Things Fall Apart
    • 1197 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Analysis Of Okonkwo's Fall In Things Fall Apart

    One day, the District Commissioner, who is in charge of administering British law in Umuofia, calls Okonkwo and five other Iguedo elders to formally air their grievances; however, this is a trap. For several days, the six men are held in custody, whipped, and demanded to abide by imperial rule. After their release, all of the Umuofian men plan a meeting in the marketplace to decide how to expel the British. Beforehand, Okonkwo vows to “avenge himself” and defend power and virtue “if [the men choose] to be cowards” (199). Then, that day, the meeting is interrupted by a British messenger who orders the Ibo to stop. “In a flash…Okonkwo’s machete descend[s on] the man’s head” and the messenger is killed (204). He reacts so immediately because his obsession has been completely internalized and is now an enduring trait. Okonkwo’s response comes also from a place of desperation: he’s lost his son, his clan, and his village to the British, and the only way he knows how to combat their rule is with manly violence, which stems from his castigation of all things…

    • 1197 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Theme Of Violence In Things Fall Apart
    • 1026 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Theme Of Violence In Things Fall Apart

    As stated “Nwoye turned round to walk into the inner compound when his father, suddenly overcome with fury, sprang to his feet and gripped him by the neck. Where have you been?"(Achebe 54). This shows that for Okonkwo to solve any problem violence is the way to go. Even though that’s his own son, he never gives him the respect or value he deserves. Okonkwo always neglects his son of being weak. Throughout the novel he never tried to understand his son and every time Nwoye did something that Okonkwo didn’t like punishment was the way to go just like with the case of his wife . After this incident Nwoye leaves his father for forever. To Okonkwo violence is more important than his relationship with his son. As we can see instead of solving the problem in peace and keeping a healthy relationship with his son he tends to show the violent side of him. Therefore, as the novel progressed, through characterization we can see how Okonkwo’s character becomes more and more aggressive and as he becomes more violent it starts to hunt him both personally and mentally. In both the examples the act of violence doesn’t allow him to have a strong personal relationship with his…

    • 1026 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    Feinility Vs. Masculinity In Chinua's Things Fall Apart
    • 1259 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Feinility Vs. Masculinity In Chinua's Things Fall Apart

    "In that brief moment the world seemed to stand still...." "In a flash Okonkwo drew his machete...descended twice on the man's head."(p.204) Clearly it was Okonkwos' Chi that outweighed that of his clansmen because the narrator then stated, "He knew the Umuofia would not go to war." (p.205)…

    • 1259 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    Importance Of Tradition In Things Fall Apart
    • 1010 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Importance Of Tradition In Things Fall Apart

    Okonkwo and his people devoted their life to their great traditions and supreme beings. (Alam, para 9). In Ibo society, a man is known for his own achievement a man who fails at this is seen as an ‘agbala’ meaning a woman. (Alam, para 5). Okonkwo despised weakness in anyone especially in himself and his sons. Weakness was for women. When his people began to give up their traditions, he saw them as weak. Okonkwo’s had faith that when the time came his people would rise up and go to war with the white man in order to win back their livelihood. But when the time came “He knew that that Umuofia would not go to war. He knew because they had let the other messengers escape” (Achebe, Page 205). Okonkwo saw that his people had…

    • 1010 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    The Ibo Culture In Things Fall Apart By Chinua Achebe
    • 1605 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The Ibo Culture In Things Fall Apart By Chinua Achebe

    The author chooses to include three of the most powerful events within pages of each other, not leaving any time for the reader to digest what is happening before the next shocking event hits. When Okonkwo returns to Umuofia, things are not as he left them. He lost much of his power, and the culture had been altered so much that the Ibo people began to lose their passion for tradition, and to fight back. Okonkwo puts a vast amount of energy into trying to turn things around, but one of meetings is interrupted by a white messenger that was with the missionaries, who demanded they stop the meeting. Okonkwo reacted quickly and impulsively. "Okonkwo 's machete descended twice and the man 's head lay beside his uniform body" (204). There was no way the reader could see this coming. Achebe gave no access to the thoughts or feelings of Okonkwo or the messenger. Out of nowhere, the machete dropped and everything changed. The event fell as fast as the machete fell on the messenger, and with little to no emotion. As far as the reader can tell, Okonkwo feels no remorse. The high value of life the ibo regarded vanished before the audiences eyes and the only feeling left to have was pure shock. The last murder Okonkwo committed was his son 's, Ikemefuna. Achebe contrasts that with this vivid picture of a death that came with no foreshadowing nor aftermath. Now, if Things…

    • 1605 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    The Importance Of Traditions In Things Fall Apart
    • 1265 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The Importance Of Traditions In Things Fall Apart

    “Blindly following ancient customs and traditions doesn’t mean that the dead are alive, but that the living are dead” (Ibn Khaldun). There are the benefits and costs that come along with any religion or custom, but as seen in the novel Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe demonstrates how the consequences of the customs of the Umuofia tribe outweigh the benefits. While many of the tribe members of Umuofia all follow the tribe’s customs, one member in particular who is well respected, lives by the village's customs especially by the rule of masculinity, his name is Okonkwo. As a child, Okonkwo grew up with a father who was seen by the village more as a woman than a man, and all because he showed his emotions and rather play the flute than fight.…

    • 1265 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More

Related Topics

Ready To Get Started?
Discover
Company
Follow
©2023 Cram.com
Privacy Policy |  About Ads |  Site Map |  Advertise  | 
  • Cookie Settings