Essay On Okonkwo's Sense Of Identity In Things Fall Apart

Throughout the book, he continually goes on about how “womanly” certain things are. His emotions about killing Ikemefuna are a result of him becoming a woman. As portrayed in this instance, “‘How can a man who has killed five men in battle fall to pieces because he has added a boy to their number? Okonkwo, you have become a woman indeed.’” (Achebe 65) He thinks that feeling sorrow over Ikemefuna’s death is womanlike, and not to be tolerated because he is a strong person; a man. When the royal python is killed, the clan has a meeting to discuss the Christian convert’s punishment. The clan decides to leave the god to deal with the man, and that their only action would to be to ostracize the Christians. Okonkwo is disgusted by their decision, his opinions made obvious by, “This is a womanly clan, he thought. Such a thing could never happen in his fatherland, Umuofia.” (Achebe 159) Regarding his exile to his motherland, he says he regrets every day of the seven years. Okonkwo sees those years as a waste. Shown here, “Although he prospered in his motherland Okonkwo knew that he would have prospered even more in Umuofia, in the land of his fathers where men were bold and warlike. In these seven years he would have he would have climbed to the utmost heights. And so he regretted every day of his exile.” (Achebe 162) His fatherland is a more masculine environment, ergo he views it as better than Mbanta. In a similar

Nwoye first begins to undergo changes when the missionaries set up a church.Okonkwo is very against the churches due to his religious beliefs, and would be enraged

Okonkwo had a very negative response to the cultural collision the white men brought to the village, do you know why? In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, a great man called Okonkwo goes through difficult times as many obstacles come in his path to lasting greatness. When the white men start preaching about Christianity Okonkwo starts to loss his sense of identity because he’s used to people listening to him as he was once one of the great leaders of Ibo and everyone was now listening to the white men. While the men continue to preach about Christianity Okonkwo response is to refuse it, he doesn’t want to be a part of it. His consequences because he refused to changed ended with him losing his life and his son.

In Things Fall Apart, when the missionaries first come to Umuofia, Okonkwo is very adamant in resisting their ways. He refuses to conform to them and holds fast to his traditional beliefs. He believes that Christianity is “womanly” and his own practices

Even though he didn’t want to kill Ikemefuna, he thought he had to. “Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak.” Okonkwo loved Ikemefuna but he had to keep his reputation of being violent. If Okonkwo didn’t do what he needed to do, his people

In the end the cumulative effect of his actions had him on the outside looking in and he could not stand

He is impulsive. He acts before he thinks. He often offends the igbo peoploe and their traditions as well as the gods of his clan. When the white man brought Christianity to Umuofia, Okonkwo felt that the changes are ruining the Igbo culture. This is his tragic flaw, the inability to accept change. For him, hard work and effort were the true way of living and if you didn’t have any of those you were not worthy for his acknowledgement.

Eventually, The Oracle depicts that Ikemefuna must be killed but it is thought that Okonkwo shouldn't kill him because he is thought of as a father to him. Okonkwo tries to seem manly and masculine to those around him and kills him anyway. Ikemefuna was originally struck by two other men, he ran towards Okonkwo for safety and said “My father, they have killed me”. Afraid to seem weak or caring, he strikes down Ikemefuna as he runs towards him for safety. Overall, Okonkwo aims to be masculine and strong as a father figure for his family, He turns out to be a terrible father figure.

When it was "pronounced" that Ikemefuna should be killed, Okonkwo not only went along with the other men, he also "drew his machete and cut him [Ikemefuna] down." while Okonkwo was "dazed with fear," it was because "He was afraid of being thought weak" (1448). This is an extreme example of Okonkwo's need to show that he was a strong and controlled man. Only a powerful man could kill the boy that called, "My father, they have killed me" (1448).

The first reason Okonkwo’s sense of identity was challenged with the introduction of Western ideas was because of his stubbornness and his unaccepting nature. Okonkwo is a very closed-minded person and doesn’t really care about anyone. We see evidence from the text when, “Afraid? I do not care what he does to you. I despise him and those who listen to him. I shall fight alone if I choose.” This evidence supports my claim because it shows that he is so prideful that he will turn on his fellow villagers.

He will do everything he can to keep himself as one of the top in his village. Like for example he killed Ikemefuna which he had raised for years all just because he did not want to show weakness to the others. He was told not to go to the execution but insisted in going which made everything go down south towards Okonkwo. He was later feeling quite sorrow after the execution of Ikemefuna. But Okonkwo being the masculine man that he was decides to bad talk himself into forgetting about the murder that he committed and tries to forget about it.

In the novel Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo has a hard time with the collision between his culture and the culture of the missionaries because it challenges his sense of identity. He hopes that the people will want to revolt against them but struggled with the fact that everyone that was starting to accept what they are teaching. Another factor that challenges Okonkwo’s sense of identity is that his son is converting to christianity and that makes Okonkwo think of his son as week. The final reason that Okonkwo struggles with his sense of identity is that after he killed Ikemefuna he goes into a deep depression which causes him to not eat or say anything to anyone for 3 days. Okonkwo struggles with his sense of identity after he tries to persuade people into fighting back against the missionaries and no one does.

Of Imperialism, English writer and composer Anthony Burgess once said, “Colonialism. The enforced spread of the rule of reason. But who is going to spread it among the colonizers?”. In Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe chronicles the life of underdog turned successful clansman Okonkwo, as well as the complexity of the Ibo culture in pre-colonial Africa. With the arrival of British missionaries, Okonkwo’s world crumbles as their cultures clash, and more African people begin to join the church. The Ibo people at first greatly underestimate the power of the colonizers, yet they make a deep and lasting impact on their culture. These missionaries completely change the lives of the Ibo people. Achebe’s main message is to communicate this clash of

In this passage Okonkwo comes to the realization that his home clan is no longer what it used to be, it is more preoccupied with what is happening around them then what is happening with the people. This suggests that Okonkwo is upset that everyone is not paying attention to him and is instead paying attention to the missionaries and the new government. A few months after Okonkwo settles back into his tribe, he has a disagreement with one of the new government’s messengers, which results in the decapitation of one of them. “Okonkwo stood looking at the dead man. He knew that Umuofia would not go to war.

The disparity between Okonkwo’s true motivations and his warped motivations lead Okonkwo to behave in ways which shocked other members of Umuofia with his apparent disregard for others, but which made sense to him as he saw weakness and Unoka in alternatives. When Ezeudu, a respected elder in Umuofia, informed Okonkwo that the village Oracle called for the killing of Okonkwo’s adopted son Ikemefuna, he asked Okonkwo not to take part. However, Okonkwo not only accompanied them,