The book “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe is a fictional story based around the cultural and social life of an African tribe of the lower Niger River region. It depicts the daily life of the tribe and its members. It additionally shows the culture and customs of the tribe. The book focuses on one of the tribe members, Okonkwo. He is a well-revered member of the tribe. Okonkwo is a good example of a respected member of the tribe who also has great renown. He is known as an exceptional wrestler and warrior of the nine villages of the tribe. He is an incredibly strong l and influential member. Throughout the story, unfortunate events occur, preventing Okonkwo’s rise to the top and crushing his vision for his tribe.
In “Things Fall Apart” by China Achebe, the theme that change is inevitable, but growth is optional is shown through character development or the lack of it within Okonkwo and other characters within the story. With the arrival of the white missionaries, the Ibo culture was set up for great change. These changes were drastic and we see that strong characters are brought out by change, and weak ones by permanence. An example of weak faradization is Okowokwo's inability to adapt to its shifting culture. Even before the white men bare their teeth, Okokwno shows this by not acknowledging women's strength and important place in their culture. This can be shown in the novel several times as being a ‘real man’ is important in the Ibo culture.
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From the very beginning, it is established that women are weak and below men, which Okoknwo believes in greatly “[…] he was struck, as most people were, by Okonkwo’s brusqueness in dealing with less successful men. Only a week ago a man had contradicted him at a kindred meeting that they held to discuss the next ancestral feast. Without looking at the man Okonkwo had said. “This meeting is for men.” The man who had contradicted him had no titles. That was why he had called him a woman. Okonkwo knew how to kill a man’s spirit “ (achebe 4.1 )Okonkwo’s respect in the community and strong reputation has made him somewhat vain, and while he isn't ostentatious, he doesn't refrain from looking down on others who do not seek the level of hierarchy and masculinity he sees as required, not optional. He has an arrogant aura and has scant pity for those less fortunate or competent than himself despite his rough background Okowknwo states that “He had no patience with unsuccessful men” (Achebe 1.4).
A belief that sticks with Okonkwo all throughout the book is that women need to be weak, and have no choice but to be beneath them therefore constantly repeats throughout the story that he wishes Enizma would have been born male, as she was better than her brothers. When Okokwno is cast out for committing a woman's crime, of accidental murder he is forced to return to his homeland, which he views as an insult to his masculinity. His uncle, Uchendu tries to get Okowknwo to look at things another way when telling him “Then listen to me […]. Your mother is there to protect you. She is buried there. And that is why we say that mother is supreme.” (Achebe 14.25-32) This does not seem to settle with Okonkwo either. Throughout the book, Okokwo is punished several times for his bruteness and what could be considered bad chi, for all the pain he had caused others. He states in chapter twenty, “I wish she were a boy, she understood things so perfectly” which shows that Okokwno’s beliefs have not changed nor grown throughout the events of the book. As the white missionaries come, the belief that men must be violent warriors fades and the tribe begins to mold into something more civilized, more continual which Okokwo can not accept. He cannot accept him because of his fear which is shown in the following “Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure, and of weakness. It was deeper and more intimate than the fear of evil and capricious gods and of magic, the fear of the forest, and of nature, malevolent, red in tooth and claw. Okonkwo’s fear was greater than this. It was not external but lay deep within himself. It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father. Even as a little boy, he had resented his father’s failure and weakness, and even now he still remembered how he had suffered when a playmate had told him that his father was agbala.
That was how Okonkwo first came to know that agbala was not only another name for a woman, it could also mean a man who had taken to the title. And so Okonkwo was ruled by one passion – to hate everything that his father Unoka had loved. One of those things was gentleness and another was idleness. (Achebe 2.12)” Okonkwo is ruled by fear, that he may become effeminate and weak like his father. It is this that grows his hate for his son Nwoye, and it is stated that “Nwoye knew that it was right to be masculine and violent, yet he still preferred the stories his mother would tell him” (Achebe 7.53 ). And unlike Okwknwo, who cannot handle Umofia’s change and his lack of authority and gives up on life, which is shown at the end when he decides to kill himself after stating “He knew umuofia would not go to war” (Achebe 24. 205 ), Nwoye adapts to the missionaries way of life, unlike his father who failed to adapt, and therefore had to die. Noyes’s character development throughout the story is superb, starting as what was considered a weak, effeminate boy who did not have much of a future. But as a chance at a successful and respectable life without bloodshed and arrogance was offered, Nwoye didn't hesitate to take it, despite knowing of his father's strong demeanor against it. Once he does change religions, it is stated that “He let go of Nwoye who walked away and never returned” (achebe 17.152) Nwoye embraced change and flourished in it from what Mr.Brown informed Okowknwo in the chapter that “He had just sent Okowokos son, Nowye, who was now called Issac, to the new training college for teachers in Umuru” (achebe 182) Nwoye thrived as a Christian and had made leaps and bounds.
Okownko and Nwoye foil each other because of their personalities, and fates. Okokwo a brute, and Nwoye a softer soul, Okowokwo who was unable to change his ways and met an unfortunate fate, and Nwoye who learned to think differently and found the success his father had always dreamed of for him- but in a different way. It is shown that change is inevitable because no matter how many attempts Okokwo made against the missionaries, he perished because he was too close-minded and against change. Our tragic hero, Okonkwo does not show much change throughout our entire story. And while the missionaries taking over can be seen as a cultural tragedy, sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.
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