Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart Essay

“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…

Suicide is never an easy topic to talk about. In Things Fall apart written by Chinua Achebe, suicide came as a surprise toward the end of the novel. Everyone may have theories about why they think he killed himself, but there was never a clear reason why Okonkwo did such a thing. There were many contributing factors events that had led up to his suicide, after he came back from his exile is when everything started to get out of control. Okonkwo’s perception on his own masculinity started to…

colonization of the British in Umofia made Okonkwo feel submissive to the white man. As a result, Okonkwo is perpetually angry and aggressive, verbally and physically, toward the white man. The biggest blow to Okonkwo would be the loss of his son Nwoye to the Christian church. Okonkwo “was a flaming fire. How then could he have begotten a son like Nwoye, degenerate and effeminate?” (Achebe 153). By influencing Nwoye, the British succeed in making Okonkwo feel inferior as a father and…

good. An exceptional example of this is when Okonkwo goes and asks a neighbor for help, “‘Many young men have come to ask me for yams but I have refused... But I can trust you... I shall give you twice four hundred yams. Go ahead and prepare your farm’ Okonkwo thanked him again and again and went home feeling happy” (Achebe 22). The greater good is something wonderful to work for, but in plenty of cases, when one person thinks they are doing the right thing and helping out the whole, they are…

major part in all our lives. We as a society all are brought up on certain customs in our households and even within our generations. In the novel, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe customs are yet again essential in their everyday lives. The novel takes place in the Umuofia and Mbanta villages of the Igbo tribe in Nigeria, around the 1900's. Okonkwo, a well-respected warrior of the Umuofia clan, has a rising conflict within the novel between the traditional society of Umuofia and the new…

that expresses a belief that is generally thought to be true.” In the novel, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Achebe uses many proverbs during the course of the narrative. For example, in the novel it states, “As the elders said, if a child washed his hands he could eat with the kings.” (Achebe, page 8). This proverbs exhibits that due to Okonkwo’s father he was not respected since his father was a loafer. However, Okonkwo has built his own respect and fame in which he was not judged like his…

Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo, is attempting to hold on to his traditional ways, Nwoye, his son, struggles with meeting his father’s expectations as well as the community’s expectation for gender roles and religious practices. While Nwoye struggles with following traditional practices he decides to leave his original heritage and take on a new one brought by the white man. Farm work and other physical labor was expected of men in Ibo culture. This was very much a part of Okonkwo and made…

the breaking of the kola nut in the novel, readers are able to understand how important traditions and culture are to the people of Umuofia, before their culture starts morphing due to the missionaries influence. 3. Stories Throughout the novel, Okonkwo describes the folktales told by the wives to the children as feminine. Okonkwo’s son Nwoye even pretends not to…

In 1958, just two years before Nigeria became independent, Chinua Achebe published a narrative called Things Fall Apart. This novel describes the takeover of the Igbo society in Nigeria by the British. Living in this civilization, the people were brought up to value certain traditions and culture that have been around for thousands of years. Unfortunately, due to the invasion of the European people, these rituals and customs of the Igbo community began to diminish. The British were pressuring…

beliefs, then you are left with nothing. It almost feels as if you were left in the middle of a street with no lights, no signs, and no one else. That feeling would be bare and make you feel hopeless and helpless. In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the main character, Okonkwo, loses not just his culture, but his soul. However, they’re many real world examples of this. The trading post of North American…