Okonkwo's
Downfall in Things Fall Apart
A lot of people go through stress and not
being able to handle in the end. The obstacles Okonkwo faces in life are a lot.
Okonkwo's most challenge came from himself. He not only had problems with the
white culture, but also in his own culture, as he becomes frustrated with
tribal ideals that conflict with his own. The way Okonkwo faces his problems in
things fall apart eventually leads to his downfall. Okonkwo's dedication to his
manliness is what leads him to these circumstances of violence and the way he
thinks is the reason for his downfall.
Okonkwo was a proud
strong man who with working hard was able to bring himself to a respectable man
in his clan. Okonkwo always let his anger get the best of him and show no
emotion to prove he was a real man and better than his father. Okonkwo was scared
of people thinking he was just like his father so he worked hard since he was a
child. This made him hate everything his father was made of, which is weakness
and being lazy. ”Even as a little boy he had resented his father’s failure and
weakness”. (Achebe 13).when Okonkwo father died he had been in a lot of debt,
Okonkwo became obsessed with the idea of manliness in order to get over his
father weakness. ”It was the fear himself, lest he should be found to resemble
his father.”(Achebe 13). Therefore, Okonkwo only showed the emotion of anger.
He strongly believed that "To show affection was a sign of weakness the
only thing worth demonstrating was strength.”(Achebe 28). Okonkwo’s life first
began to fall apart when Ikemefuna, his supposed to be son was killed. Okonkwo
considered Ikemefuna as one of his own sons, he actually cared about him. “Even
Okonkwo himself became very fond of the body inwardly of course. Okonkwo never
showed any emotion openly, unless it was an emotion of anger”.(Achebe 28). When
he is told that the oracle had decided to kill Ikemefuna, to show everyone he
is not weak and is a real man he decides to kill Ikemefuna himself, even when
Ogbuefi Ezeudu, a great and fearless warrior told him not kills him he still
did.” That boy calls you father. Do not bear a hand in his death.” (Achebe 57).
Ikemefuna runs toward him saying "My father they have killed me."(Achebe
61). Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him done. He was afraid of being thought
weak. He was affected by Ikemefuna death. Okonkwo dealt with a lot ever since
that night.” He didn’t eat and sleep for days. Okonkwo did not taste any food
for two days after the death of Ikemefuna.”(Achebe 63).
Another event that
led to Okonkwo's life falls apart was when he was thrown out of the clan for
seven years. Okonkwo's hopes and dreams from there had begun to fall apart. His
hopes of being the highest member of the clan had been destroyed because of
what happened. Okonkwo didn’t have his animals or farm. When Okonkwo had accidentally
killed a fellow clansman when firing his gun at a traditional farewell ceremony,
Okonkwo had to flee the same night. It was a crime against the earth goddess to
kill a clansman, and a man who committed it must flee from the land. He could return
to the clan after seven years.” It was a crime against the earth goddess to
kill a clansman, and a man who committed it must flee from the land, the crime
was of two crimes male and female, because it had been inadvertent. He could return
to the clan after seven years”(Achebe 124).
After seven years had passed, Okonkwo returns
to his homeland. Only he returns to learn that the missionaries had come and
made many changes to his village. "Perhaps I have been away too long,' Okonkwo
said, almost to himself. But I cannot understand these things you tell me. What
is it that has happened to our people? Why have they lost the power to fight? Have
you not heard how the white man wiped out Abame?' asked Obierika. I have
heard,' said Okonkwo. But I have also heard that Abame people were weak and
foolish. Why did they not fight back? Had they no guns and machetes? We would
be cowards to compare ourselves with the men of Abame. Their fathers had never
dared to stand before our ancestors. We must fight these men and drive them
from the land”. (Achebe 175). Okonkwo didn’t listen to the new religious orders
because he was scared of losing the social status he worked so hard for. He would
fight and die for the way he viewed things and the way his life was before, and
he did.
He feels betrayed when his son Nwoye transfer to
Christianity and join the missionaries. He doesn't see how Nwoye can just give
up his beliefs for a religion with values that seems unbelievable. “Now that he
had time to think about it his son’s crime stood out in its stark enormity. To abandon
the gods of one’s father and go about with a lot of effeminate men clucking
like old hens was the very depth of abomination.” (Achebe 153). But Nwoye sees
the Missionaries as more understanding he thinks about everything his father
did and how he treated him and how his father killed Ikemefuma he decides to
leave his father and says he doesn’t consider Okonkwo a father. From that
moment on Okonkwo thought why he had a son like Nwoye but he realize he wasn’t
worth fighting for so he disowns Nwoye as a son. “Nwoye was not worth fighting
for. Nwoye joining the Christians affected Okonkwo a lot. Why, he cried in his
heart, should he, Okonkwo, of all people, be cursed with such a son?”(Achebe
152).
Okonkwo is also very resistant to the rules of
the missionaries. If the tribe was to switch over to the Christians then all
his hard work and sacrifices such as the killing of his son Ikemefuma and the
struggle he made to clear his father's name and show he wasn’t like him, would
all have been all for nothing. The event that immediately led to Okonkwo's downfall
was when he killed one of the head court messengers. There was a meeting and
the head court messengers came to stop the meeting and Okonkwo was just fed up
with everything so he killed him and that was his biggest mistake. ”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”. (Achebe 204).Okonkwo knew that the white man was going to find out and
the word will spread quickly, and that they would imprison then kill him as an
example. He also knew that Umuofia will not be strong enough and go to war
especially since they let the other messengers escape. “Okonkwo stood looking
at the dead man. He knew that Umofia would not go to war. He knew because they
had let the other messengers escape. They had broken into tumult instead of
action”. (Achebe 205). Rather than to turn himself in to the white man, Okonkwo
decided to kill himself, a sad way to die. In the end Okonkwo could not even be
buried with his clansman. “It is an abomination for a man to
take his own life. It is an offense against the earth, and a man who commits it
will not be buried by his clansman” (Achebe 207). Okonkwo was a great man in a
lot of people’s eyes and he could even be buried the right way, his dreams
never came true
The consequences for all
of the stuff the Okonkwo did was losing everything he loved, and which he did
little by little and losing his two sons, because he did consider Ikemefuna a
son. Okonkwo lost everything he worked for and what he had planned to become in
life. For someone who head was held so high to end up taking your own life and
not even being able to buried by your clansmen is brutal.” That man was one of
the greatest men in Umofia. You drove him to kill himself, and now he will be
buried like a dog.”(Achebe 208).
From all these events that led to Okonkwo
downfall one could see that Okonkwo's life was a total failure. People who fear
they may become someone eventually lead themselves to becoming it by trying so
hard to be the opposite of the person. Anyone can see that Okonkwo had not
achieved his goals which had a lot to do by the way he handled things, but
instead, by the end of his life, he had become a failure like his father.
As you can see Okonkwo's
true devastation was his manliness and the way he viewed things.
Work Cited
Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Anchor
Books, 1994.
Print.
No comments:
Post a Comment