Analysis of Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

In the book “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe, we see the effect the white missionaries had on an African tribe and the antihero Okonkwo. The main character Okonkwo is a tragic hero. Achebe depicts Okonkwo as a Shakespearean hero with a tragic flaw, that tragic flaw is the fact that he will do anything in his power not to be a weak man like his father Unoka. Okonkwo did what he did because he hated his father and would do anything in his power to be the exact opposite of his father.

This novel is the definitive tragic model about the dissolution of the African Ibo culture by Nigerian author, Chinua Achebe. Okonkwo, a great and heroic leader, is doomed by his inflexibility and hubris. He is driven by fear of failure.

Fall Apart” as the protagonist, Okonkwo, reveals himself as a proud man but also a symbol of his

     When Okonkwo returns to the village, he finds that the white man has moved in, bringing Christianity with him. This is a struggle that shows Okonkwo’s inflexibility and objection to change from tradition. Eventually, Okonkwo slay’s a man working for the British and ends up hanging himself as a result of his actions. Suicide is forbidden by the clan,

Umuofia is a village in Africa, and the inhabitants there are usually united. However, when the Christians arrive and permeate the village, the clan changes but also falls apart. The novel in which this story takes place is called Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. The story is about a well-respected man named Okonkwo who has three wives and many children, the oldest being Nwoye. Okonkwo is banished for seven years from Umuofia, and during those seven years, Umuofia is changed fundamentally by the Christian faith. Many people are converted, but the whole clan is in conflict. This novel demonstrates that Christianity destroys but also guides the Ibo culture in Umuofia.

Things Fall Apart is an English novel by the Nigerian author Chinua Achebe which was published in 1957. Throughout the book the role of customs and traditions is very important and decides the fate of men, women, and children. Some of the customs practiced in this culture would certainly be frowned upon in the West yet are perfectly

If we were all afraid of blood, it would not be done. And what do you think the Oracle would do then?'"(Achebe 731). In the white soldiers, this void constitutes a sense of leadership in them. This sense of leadership leads them to devalue their emotion and those of others. It is rarely evident that the white men are troubled by the emotions of those outside their tribe.

The excerpt taken from Chinua Achebe’s Things fall apart comes from the end of the book, where the commissioner finds Okonkwo’s body dangling from a tree. This passage serves as closure for the novel, as the traditions of the past die along with Okonkwo. Achebe uses this specific scene in the novel to express both his views on the inevitable death of Igbo culture in the lower Niger (specifically Umuofia), as well as his perception of the portrayal of its people in western literature. In addition, Achebe continues to use this scene to drive the idea of cultural difference between both the inhabitants of Umuofia, and the missionaries that inhabited the land.

I believe it was the great and powerful Napoleon Bonaparte who once said, “In the long run, the sword is always beaten by the spirit”. Bonaparte was not merely referring to the fact that the spirit of the people is stronger than the might of the sword, but he was also referring to the fact that there is no such thing as true oppression. It is this same misleading oppression that we can see happening in the modern day continent of Africa. The African people have lived through “the complexes of denigration and self-abasement” (Achebe). In Chinua Achebe’s book, Things Fall Apart, he tries to help his ‘society regain belief in itself and put away’ these complexities. For Achebe the African image still has hope, and it is through the

Hannah Rench 4/1/2016 English 10 Critical Moment Essay: Things Fall Apart “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power” - Abraham Lincoln. In “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe, he talks about the struggles that the main character, Okonkwo, encounters while he is trying his hardest to become one of the lords of the clan. Okonkwo shows many critical moments where he struggles to be strong and powerful unlike his father, Unoka. Okonkwo always had a desire for power, which was caused by his lazy and weak father.

The society that we live in today is known to be male-controlled and we give no intention of accepting women as the dominating species. In many African societies that exist today, the condition, the amount of pain they endure, and the amount of work they do and yet they receive to hospitality, no respect, and no status. The importance of women is a game changer, it is a scale which balances when women are in the picture and drops when they are not. Unfortunately, women are not appreciated as much as they should be It is a shame, where such a human being is not cared about in any regard even though they are the ones who do the most in day to day activities and work. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is an incredible tome of African composition at its finest that is beautifully describes the Ibo lands and culture in Africa being taken over by British establishment. It very well describes the harsh fragments of being a woman in the Ibo Society and the consequences that come with being a female. The men in Ibo society have been taught from their passed down culture and religion to treat women harshly.

This chapter is the final movement in Chinua Achebe’s saga illustrating the harmonic and steeply traditional culture of an Ibo village in Nigeria’s introduction to, struggle with, and finally the submission to the European peoples that sauntered in and colonized the country. Okonkwo, the noble hero that this novel follows, has committed suicide in protest of his clan’s decision to submit to European imperialism instead of honorably fighting back. The story of Okonkwo, the man whose rise to power and rank was depicted at the start of the novel and traced throughout, has come to a bitter and tragic end with his fall from grace which occurs both because of and in lockstep with the capitulation of the Ibo people.

Question ( 2 ): Discuss Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe 's “Things Fall Apart” is a tragic hero.

The only thing he (Okonkwo) fears most is not ending up like his father, Unoka. However, Achebe ‘‘makes an insightful comment on the nature of masculinity through his representation of the tribal leaders. Achebe basically, was conducive in creating four alter egos of Okonkwo: one of which were the masculinity; next of his fatherly abilities; and the last of his family progress and four of his likelihood of success’’ (Achebe.179). My paper will explain how Okonkwo’s Masculinity from Achebe’s Things Fall Apart will be characterized by his fears, beliefs, and emotions for several reasons.

In Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart Okonkwo’s identity of being a respected clansman is challenged, after the arrival of the missionaries, Achebe utilizes this to bring out the theme “a man’s violence will be his