Okonkwo, the protagonist of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, was a prominent, strong, self-made Umuofian man who died a tragic hero. The thoughts and actions of this man of strong conviction were dictated by the emotions: Fear, pride, and anger. These emotions shaped the way Okonkwo lived, self-consciously impacting his self-perceived role in Igbo culture. This caused him to have an incredibly distant and temperamental relationship with his many wives and children, thus having a negative impact
The novel Things Fall Apart, written by Chinua Achebe, is set in the fictional village of Umuofia during around the nineteenth century. Okonkwo, the protagonist of the story, is a respected and successful warrior, having three wives and eight children. Okonkwo is aggressive and stoic, refusing to show any emotion since it is a sign of weakness (pg.28). This is mostly due to his fear of becoming like his lazy and cowardly father, Unoka, who is deemed as failure. In the beginning, a virgin and a
Things Fall Apart, written by Chinua Achebe, narrates the destruction of a tribal civilization and a tribal religion through Imperialism. In this story, the main character, Okonkwo, surfaces as a tragic hero. A tragic hero can fall under many categories. For example, he or she can be an Aristotelian tragic hero or Arthur Miller’s depiction of a tragic hero. A tragic hero must have certain qualities in order to be considered an Aristotelian tragic hero. Because Okonkwo follows the patterns that Aristotle
Many people suffer tragedy at some point in their lives whether big or small, Okonkwo is no exception. In the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, we follow the story of Okonkwo, a man who became known throughout his clan as a great man and had three wives and nine children. But one day his life started to fall apart when he was exiled to his mother’s homeland for seven years after accidentally killing a clansman. But soon after he was exiled, missionaries invaded Nigeria and with them brought
brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart” (Achebe 176). This reference identifies exactly the themes presented in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. It displays the difficulties the Igbo people faced in their interactions with the Christian church. This quote perfectly identifies the internal struggle of the main character, Okonkwo, and many others like him. In fact, it models the struggle that was faced universally
Cultural Change A sense of identity is developed by everyone as they mature, but it is always changing as culture changes. The novel, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, follows the development of several characters in response to a cultural shock caused by the Westernization of the Ibo tribe in Nigeria. The protagonist of the book, Okonkwo, was a strong leader who ruled with a heavy hand. Nwoye, Okonkwo’s first son, was very different however. Although he tried to shadow his father, Nwoye always
power, their decline usually has an unfortunate ending. One thing will lead to another and soon the people of their civilization no longer support them. Although this may be hard for the leader to come to realization with ,it will catch up with them in the end. Corrupted power is something that will always have its place in society. The idea that people can not always keep their power forever is spread throughout the book Things Fall Apart. In the
An Introduction to Religious and Theological Studies gives us nine core beliefs of African Traditional Religions that are also incorporated into the book, Things Fall Apart, a book of tribal religion in the country Nigeria. Things Fall Apart, is a book centered on a warrior of the Umuofia clan, Okonkwo. Okonkwo was a very aggressive, emotionless individual with a constant temper that he possibly received from his disgust with his non-respected father. We are told a lot about the life of these tribal
caused by a tragic flaw, or hubris. The man then experiences agony and pain due to his fall from grace. This is the case of the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. The main character Okonkwo is a man of high standing in Igbo society who built his way up from the low status given unto him by his unreliable father. He achieves having a good yam farm, three wives, and several children. Okonkwo then experiences a fall from grace, losing status and fortune, and is exiled from his tribe for several years
Okonkwo’s personality was his downfall Things Fall Apart is an imperialist novel at the turn of the 20th century. Author, Chinua Achebe, creates characters that experience tragedy at a time of rapid colonization and change in Nigeria. The tragic hero in this story, Okonkwo, who is threatened by rapid movements of the European empire colonizing in Nigeria, is also threatened by becoming like his father. Okonkwo battles internal conflict, and his character falls apart as his personality and morality plummet