No Longer at Ease

Forces, the third feature of the tragic template, have a profound impact on the characters in Things Fall Apart, most specifically, Okonkwo. Forces are things that are outside of the control of the character. The outside force that has the greatest impact on Okonkwo is the arrival of European missionaries. The missionaries came to Umuofia, Mbanta, and the surrounding villages with the intention of spreading Christianity to the native people of Africa. This affects Okonkwo personally because his…

Okonkwo’s life begins to fall apart when he is banned from Umuofia for seven years as a punishment for unintentional murder. As he fled to his motherland, Mbanta, the villagers “set fire to his houses, demolished his red walls, killed his animals, and destroyed his barn” (125). The possessions that defined his masculinity and high title, such as his obis and yams, disappeared in a blink of an eye. Okonkwo had to start a new lifestyle out of nothing. When Okonkwo left, the white men began to…

The Bible says that for everything there is a season. That means that things will change as time passes and sometimes, there is no way to stop it. This idea is clearly shown throughout the novel Things Fall Apart written by Chinua Achebe. This novel, set in West Africa in the late 1800s, details the violent events that occur when the white men who follow Christianity begin to colonize in the villages of Nigeria. This causes a series of rippling issues that spread across the lands of the people…

In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo is portrayed as a man of strength. In the final pages of the book this fear to be anything else but a “strong man,” is what ultimately leads to his suicide in the most ironic way. The fear of being seen as weak not only to himself but the in the eyes of everyone around him, not only lead to his death but drives the entire story. Okonkwo's need to be seen as no less than strength comes from his father. Throughout the writing we see the hatred Okonkwo…

A leader can be defined as someone who takes initiative or as someone who can be followed by others. Every leader rules and holds himself differently and they all have different causes for the way that they lead.In Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart,” Okonkwo is shown as a person who people follow, even though he constantly makes wrong decisions. His choices are led by the fear of being thought of as similar to his father and the fear of being known as weak. Okonkwo’s biggest fear was ending up like…

Grandfather Bakhye’s death ritual was a rather long process. He had special implications because he was a very respected elder and vital to the village community. To begin, he did not pass away on his own village grounds. In their culture, you must walk back from your beginning resting place to your territory. Grandfather was not alive nor dead when he was walking back from the missionary hill. As Malidoma stated “Grandfather was now existing in a space beyond the living” (P.48) When he was…

Purple Hibiscus a novel where Patriarchy runs deep within the Achike family with the Father Eugene as the panopticon patriarch. Eugene has a lot of power over the village of Enugu, as he is a well-respected Big Man. Eugene uses his control to abuse his family and he comforts himself with the thought that it will guide his family to heaven. Eugene uses neo-colonialism within his family, we see it mainly through Kambili as she is the protagonist of the novel. She is so devoted to her father with…

Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic ,Chinua Achebe, in his book Things Fall Apart details colonization in Africa though the Africans point of view. Achebe's purpose is to humanize the Africans and to stand up for others who may be scared to speak on this topic. The writer adopts a powerful tone in order to change their poor stereotypes given to Africa by the Western people after the Christians set foot on their land. He also develops a strong individual Okonkwo and his family in…

Things Fall Apart, by Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe is a novel centered around the Nigerian Igbo culture during Nigeria’s British colonization in the 1800s. The novel published in 1958, is a broad, and objective illustration of the Igbo culture. Achebe also provides an insight into the prevailing Western perspective at the time during which colonialism was at it’s peak. One of Chinua Achebe’s primary motivations which led him to writing the novel, Things Fall Apart was the slanted perspective of…

Nigerian author Chinua Achebe is often considered to be the “father of modern African literature” (Alam, 102). He grew up in a time when Africans first began to challenge the power of the European colonists and their intrusion into African life (Sadeghi, 49), which is reflected in his first novel Things Fall Apart. A recurring theme in Achebe’s works is the representation of native African cultures and values before, during and after the colonial era. According to Achebe, “African peoples did…