Things Fall Apart

4 Pages 1043 Words

Okonkwo’s Demise

In Things fall apart by Chinua Achebe, Achebe immediately establishes his viewpoint from inside Umuofia. The first half of the book establishes the culture and religion of Umuofia. In the beginning of the book Okonkwo is introduced immediately as a fierce and strong, masculine warrior. All of the sudden Okonkwo accidentally kills a fellow brother of the village. He gets banished and he goes to live in his mother’s village for seven years. During his time of exile, he hears stories about white men killing the people in the village of Abame. At the same time, Okonkwo’s village, missionaries set up a church. This marked the beginning of the end for all of the villages in Umuofia. The village life was centered around: being prosperous, obeying the gods, and a sense of brotherly unity within the village. The missionaries inadvertently destroyed the unity of Okonkwo’s village. When one of the new Christians desecrated one of the egwuwu, the egwuwu decided to destroy the church. This caused the district commissioner to call the leaders of the village to his court. The leaders of Okonkwo’s village did not know what was going on. They were arrested and beaten. A few days after Okonkwo was released from jail, he killed a kotma. The next day, before the District Commissioner could take Okonkwo, he hanged himself. Okonkwo did this because he was stubborn and proud, he knew that his tribe would not fight, and he was afraid. It was in his best interest to compromise, but Ononkwo was incapable of compromising. The people of Umuofina defined men as strong providers, warriors, leaders, prosperous, hard working, proud, and they follow the gods.
Okonkwo strictly followed this definition of what a man ought to be. He did not compromise in his principles and was afraid of looking weak like his father. Unoka, Okonkwo’s father, was a man that was lazy and played his flute all day. He owed money to everyone he ...