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.…
In the novel Things Fall Apart , the author, Chinua Achebe, uses the arrival of the English missionaries who attempt to convert the Ibo peoples traditional values and beliefs to raise the question of what the balance is between change and traditions. Through the struggle and conflict that Okonkwo experiences after he prioritizes traditional values and as a result loses his status, the readers begin to question how the reality of change can affects the personal status of many characters. Achebe demonstrates how a society with different views must overcome problems and make decisions to ensure their society’s future.…
The white man’s ways were foreign to the Ibo culture. All they had known was that barns, wives, and wealth is what builds a successful life and depending on how much of each a man had it measured how prosperous they were as a person. In chapter one of Things Fall Apart it talks about Okonkwo’s father, Unoka and how he was failure during his life. In the book it states “A man with titles was placed significantly higher in the social structure of Umuofia than someone who was like Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, who had never achieved anything significant in his life.” Which not only tells the importance of titles, but supports the statement of Unoka being a failure.…
What if one person's life mirrored the story of a child and spouse? Throughout the book Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe informs the reader about the hard times the natives people of Nigeria faced when the British were colonizing. Achebe focuses on the Umuofia clan in the Ibo culture. The main protagonist, Okonkwo, faces many challenges and is presented with situations that he is unclear with how to deal with. One of his wives named Ekwefi as an interesting relationship with her daughter Ezinma, and Okonkwo compared to other members of the family.…
As I was reading this case, I noticed some cultural differences between Eze’s Nigerian and American cultural worlds. The most relevant cultural difference was his spousal and parental roles, which influenced his behavior. Protecting and loving his family was Eze’s reasons for his behavior. In the Nigerian culture, the role of a father is to protect his family and impose authority at the same time. There, the man is the one making the decisions in the household.…
Fathers and sons worldwide have had power struggles and brawls over the superiority of themselves since the beginning of time. Mothers and daughters, more loving and gentle, have been seen as more level-headed and open to new things for eons. Nothing since has changed. Written by Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart explores these types of parental relationships and their differences in a culture. In Things Fall Apart, the relationships between the parents and their children play an integral role in the actions of the characters, and the culture as a whole.…
There cannot be change without someone fighting to keep things the same. In 1890’s Nigeria some members of the Ibo clan embrace this new change, while others, like the protagonist Okonkwo, sternly believe in the old ways of the clan. This is the setting for Chinua Achebe’s greatest novel, Things Fall Apart. One theme of this book is violence.…
The book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe focuses on the character Okonkwo, his family and the Ibo tribe. The book Things Fall Apart gives many examples of how Okonkwo has failures and consequences for his failures and then has to live with these consequences and their negative effects. Many examples of this show up throughout the novel such as him killing another tribesman by accidentally shooting off his defective old gun and this has him and his family getting banished from their tribe. Okonkwo is a well-decorated tribesman and warrior who has based his life off of not being a failure and considered weak as his father was before him. Many times in life, as well as literature, people make choices and must live with the consequences…
In Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, the protagonist, Okonkwo, best fulfils his gender role through his mentality, actions, and ideologies. First of all, Okonkwo demonstrates how to be the ideal man in accordance to the Igbo culture by expressing his feelings of humiliation when someone is exhibiting feminine behavior. Okonkwo is disgusted by the idea of a man who acts like a women or has no title to claim for himself. In the Igbo society, not having a title to represent oneself is equivalent to be being a women. A prime example of such a person would be Okonkwo’s father, Unoka.…
In “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo is dominated by his fear of weakness and failure. In the tribe where Okonkwo and his family live, Umuofia, the amount of honor and respect depends on your strength. Since early childhood, Okonkwo’s embarrassment about his lazy, poor and neglectful father, Unoka, has led to his tragic flaw; being terrified of looking weak like his father. As a result, he behaves rashly, bringing a great deal of trouble and sorrow upon himself and his family. Okonkwo’s fear of weakness and failure, which stemmed from his father, leads to the horrid and unmerited treatment he gives to those around him and eventually prompted his downfall.…
Imagine a society in which it is acceptable for men to treat women as their inferior. The way that women were treated as inferiors in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe helps the reader to understand Ibo society and men’s accepted superiority within the society. In Things Fall Apart, women’s role in Ibo society is crucial to the society, understanding it and grasping the men’s behavior as the superior sex. The preconceived idea that women are weak, the women’s responsibilities and the women being treated as objects will help the reader to make sense of the gender complications within this novel.…
Imagine you are boy live in Africa and come from a poor family. Imagine that your father cannot provide for your family and you owe a lot of money to friends and relatives, he has to pay back; moreover, he is not respected at all he has no titles. How would you respond, make a name for yourself, and prove that you are nothing like your father? Okonkwo perfectly fits this description. Written by Chinua Achebe in 1958, Things Fall Apart takes place in Nigeria and centers the story about Okonkwo when he becomes a man.…
Chinua Achebe produces different labels of women and their position in society in Nigeria in his thought-provoking novel Things Fall Apart. Achebe presents two types of women; one being the property of their husband and the other being mighty, a spiritual being controlling a balance between clashing persons and forces. Okonkwo is the main character in Things Fall Apart, and he has different views of the women in his life. When Unoka, Okonkwo’s father, was still alive, he was a cheater and shameful. He was unreliable and an embarrassment to the Igbo society and to Okonkwo.…
The title of Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart suggests tragedy which the novel clearly portrays in relation to what happens to Okonkwo, the main character. Okonkwo has ongoing issues coping with his life because of his father’s past, he experiences the pain of his Igbo tribe falling apart because of government and the coming of missionaries, and he suffers with guilt over the death of the son he took in and accepted as his own. Okonkwo faces many trials and tribulations throughout his life, and much of this is due to his father. He tries hard his entire life to be totally opposite of his father. He wants to be seen as strong, but his mind oftentimes tells him that he is weak.…
Have you ever met someone who’s the complete opposite of you? In the novel, Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo and Unoka are completely different in strength and success with Okonkwo being strong and successful and Unoka being weak and a loafer. Though they may be very different they both share a common similarity, belief in cultural tradition. The differences and the similarity between them is what makes them unique characters.…