How Does Okonkwo's Change In Things Fall Apart

For all of his desire to be strong, Okonkwo is caught up by the constant fear of being perceived as weak. He is afraid of failure and afraid of being considered weak. This fear drives him to do whatever he can to not become a failure like his father which ironically contributes to his death. While Okonkwo was a strong and important figure in his tribe, he had to keep his reputation that way by making some hard decisions. One of them was when he had to kill Ikemefuna, a young boy from the neighboring tribe. Okonkwo started accepting the decision to kill Ikemefuna because he started to call Okonkwo father. He had to keep his own valor intact and kill the boy to prevent himself from showing any weakness, but deep down, Okonkwo was really upset because of what he did which was ironic, “’When did you become a shivering old woman,' Okonkwo asked himself, 'you, who are known in all the nine villages for your valor in war? 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 continued to roll downhill when the white man comes to try and convert Okonkwo’s tribe. Okonkwo responds by killing one of the messengers that were sent. This cause Okonkwo's own tribe to question his actions. “"Okonkwo stood looking at the dead man. He knew that Umuofia would not go to war. He knew because they had let the other messengers escape.

We take a look at his personality and see that he had a warrior complex and machismo. For example in the novel on page 158 paragraph six it says “let us not reason like cowards.” His warrior complex turns everything he does like a battle plan. He wants there to be a fight or else they are not doing it right. Okonkwo’s machismo makes everyone else who is not like him not a man. In the book we see this on page 26 paragraph two “this meeting is for men.” He did not want to listen to the man because he was not well known like him and he did not have as many titles as okonkwo did. Both of these traits aided in the way he responded to the new culture.

But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness.” Many people believed that Okonkwo was such a cruel man because of the wall that he put up. This affected his family because he still continued to act tough with his wives and most of his kids, there was only one of his children that saw his soft side and that was Emzina, his daughter. He also thought a lot about one of the people he killed, which showed that he wasn’t the tough guy that everybody thought he was, but no matter what he refused to show any signs of weakness to avoid being like his

He tried telling people that they needed to start taking action as soon as possible. “We should have killed the white man if you had listened to me,” Okonkwo snarled.” (Things Fall Apart: chapter 23, page 195). Okonkwo knows that they should have done something about these people invading their land a long time ago but they just didn’t listen. They didn’t listen because they were scared, and know they would fight back.

This damages Okonkwo's relationship with his son forever, which ruins Nwoye's respect and faith towards the Ibo traditions. Because of this, Nwoye feels like he has had enough and decides to convert to Christianity in protest against the Ibo traditions. Aside from burning Nwoye's honor in following the Ibo ways and traditions, Okonkwo's fierce anger also crushes his own spirit, as it sinks himself down deep into depression. This leaves him completely disappointed, angry, and failed in his son. At this point, lots fall apart within him and his everyday life.

In the novel Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo is portrayed as a respected and determined individual whose fatal flaw eventually works against him. Throughout the novel the readers are shown that Okonkwo has many of these Characteristics because he is obsessed with the idea of becoming just like his father. This becomes his flaw in the novel that puts him into exile and makes it hard for him to adjust to the changes that were made with in his village.

Nwoye most likely remembers the twins he heard thrown in the Evil Forest and intends to be like Isaac, and protect twins and others that the Ibo consider evil. Nwoye has also become a teacher which shows his devotion to Christianity, greater than any devotion he had in Umuofia, whether to working in the fields, his father, or his culture. Mr. Brown's friendly nature is also shown in this section. He heard of Okonkwo returning to Umuofia and "immediately paid him a visit" and "hoped that Okonkwo would be happy to hear of it," referring to Nwoye. Okonkwo, however, drove Mr. Brown away and threatened him. This treatment of Mr. Brown shows Okonkwo's genuine hatred of Christianity that stole his first-born son and any change that has come with it.

From the start Okonkwo disapproved of nwoye for his laziness and beat him often. Even Though Nwoye was being beat, he never seemed to retaliate. Nwoye is what I like to call a reserved person. Reserved people aren't going to fight back much, but instead they take their heat and deal with it internally. These are the people that will sometimes just walk away from conflict After the death of Ikemefuna, Nwoye began to hate his father more because his he had taken part in the killing of the boy.

Okonkwo soon learns about this and confronts his son, Nwoye about his secret meetings, Okonkwo soon becomes enraged and disowns his son after hearing about his experience not before abusing him of course. This action causes an effect which ultimately leads to Okonkwo’s downfall. Okonkwo enraged by the spread of Christianity within his own village self-proclaims war on the “white man”. Okonkwo eventually was detained as a result of his actions towards the “white man”. After he was released from detainment Okonkwo killed a courier and began to truly understand he was a rebel without a cause as his fellow Tribesmen would not help him with his internal struggle. Okonkwo knowing, he would be caught and executed for his crimes, instead decided to ultimately end his own life by hanging himself. Okonkwo’s major downfall in the story was his inability to co-exist with the white man and began his own personal vendetta against the Christian missionaries. Throughout the story the main essential theme Achebe tried to relay to us would be the fact that even though individuals may be of different religions, skin color, and have different personalities there is a realization that

After which, he thought about what was to come as his imagination ran wild. The text says, “He saw himself and his fathers crowding round their ancestral shrine waiting in vain for worship and sacrifice and finding nothing but ashes of bygone days, and his children the while praying to the white man's god. If such a thing were ever to happen, he, Okonkwo, would wipe them off the face of the earth.” (114) Such a violent thought foreshadowed what the male would do. Okonkwo was a violent man, but he had never slaughtered a man purposefully without the consent of his clan.

Nwoye was one Nigerians who was recruited for schooling and he was also one of the confused teens. He never knew where he belonged, unlike his father he wasn't misogynistic, was okay with being around the women of his family, and wasn't afraid to show emotion. Okonkwo associated his traits with those of a woman and frequently punished him for it. In the book you could clearly see the growing resentment he had for his father. So when a

The Christian church had finally won him over with their answers to questions he had been asking his whole life. All that was left was to cut the ties with his old life, with his father. But his father was the one to make the first move. After learning of his sons visit to the church Okonkwo grabbed him by the throat in a misguided search for a reason why. “Nwoye struggled to free himself from the choking grip” (page 151) Even when he has fully lost his son to the new religion, Okonkwo still tries to use violence to mold his son into what he perceives a man should be, which illustrates the nature of their relationship. It had always been fueled by anger on Okonkwo's part and fear on Nwoye's. It takes people screaming at him to let his son go for Okonkwo to finally give up, but this attack was the last straw and he was finally able to free himself of his father. "But he left hold of Nwoye, who walked away and never returned.” (page 152) Though Okonkwo did not learn from this experience, Nwoye did. He learned that his father's violence and anger could no longer control him, and that there was an escape available, though it was an escape to another culture that he most likely did not fully believe in either but at the very least, this one did not have Okonkwo. "Nwoye did not fully understand. But he was happy to leave his father."(page 152) Okonkwo's goal had always been to make Nwoye 'manlier' as he was afraid of the shame having a feminine son would

Nwoye believed these men; Nwoye abandoned his father for a new life, a new religion. “Although Nwoye had been attracted to the new faith from the very first day, he kept it secret. He dared not go too near the missionaries for fear of his father. But whenever they came to preach in the open marketplace or the village playground, Nwoye was there.” (Pg.112 TFA) Okonkwo feared the white men, because he feared Nwoye would become a Christian, ultimately losing his son. During the speech in chapter 24, Okonkwo’s last straw had been drawn; “In a flash Okonkwo drew his machete. The messenger crouched to avoid the blow. It was useless. Okonkwo's machete descended twice and the man's head lay beside his uniformed body.” Fear had destroyed Okonkwo so much he killed a man out of nowhere, and later on in the book he committed suicide.

Due to his pride, Okonkwo was true to his religion and sense of identity. By beating Nwoye, Okonkwo realizes that he is losing his sense of identity because his own son, Nwoye “decided to go to Umuofia where the white missionary had set up a school to teach young Christians to read and write” (152). This means that Nwoye has decided to join the missionaries and help the British teach Christianity to others. This matters because Okonkwo has lost his oldest son to the missionaries. This consequence impacts Okonkwo because Nwoye seems to lose respect for him, showing that Okonkwo is losing his sense of identity. However, Okonkwo doesn’t give up, he tries to get his people to start a war against the missionaries by killing the messenger, but “he knew the Umuofia would not go to war. He knew because they had let the other messengers escape. They had broken into tumult instead of action. He discerned fright in that tumult. He heard voices asking ‘Why did he do it?’” (205). This means that his attempts to encourage the Ibo people to fight and start a war against the missionaries, results in a loss of hope. His people instead of supporting him question why he would do such a thing. Okonkwo finally realizes that he cannot save his village and its traditions no matter how fiercely he tries. Okonkwo himself feels utterly defeated because everything has fallen apart for

When the new religion is brought over by the white men, Okonkwo strongly opposes to it because he felt that its qualities display weakness and would destroy the Ibo culture. He refused to change and stuck to his old ways, but as more and more of his clansmen convert, Okonkwo sees his world start to crumble. “Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer stand as one” (Achebe 176). His clan slowly divides into two clear-cut sides, but the Ibo people didn’t want to fight back the new religion. As a result, Christianity took over everything, from the government, to the judicial system. Feeling powerless, Okonkwo commits his final act of vengeance and kills a messenger, committing suicide soon after. If the Umoufia had tried to fight back Christianity, they wouldn’t have loss so much power this quickly. This reluctance was due to the absence of