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Things Fall Apart
By Chinua Achebe

The novel “Things Fall Apart” by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe follows the life of Okonkwo and his family in their village in Lower Nigeria. The book is set in the 1890’s and the novel depicts the colonisation of Africa by the European Settlers and it focuses on individual members of Okonkwo’s tribe. Throughout the book we see Okonkwo’s life follow its path and we see the things happening around him. Is Okonkwo destined to his fate or was his inevitable downfall in his own hands? This essay will try and answer this question by examining the characters the author has created and the theme of the text.

Some of the major characters created by Achebe are Okonkwo, Nwoye; Okonkwo’s eldest son and Mr Brown/Reverend Smith. Okonkwo is plays a major role in the novel and is a very powerful man. He achieved fame in his and the surrounding villages by throwing Amalinze ‘the Cat’ in a wrestling match. He achieved this fame, as Amalinze had not been beaten for several years. Okonkwo’s greatest fears are that he will end up like his lazy father and he also fears that his son Nwoye will end up like him as well. Throughout the novel Okonkwo pursues achievements to make up for the shame that his father brought on him and on the village. He achieves great success becoming a warrior, a farmer, a Clansman, a husband to three wives and a father to several children. However Okonkwo is not the man he wants to be as he has his weaknesses and it is these weaknesses that destroy everything he has created for himself. He is determined not be seen as weak and internal and external forces drive this determination. His behaviour is often rash and impulsive usually involving violence and it is this behaviour that makes him break the ‘Week of Peace’ by beating his wife, which is sacred in his village. “The evil you have done can ruin the whole clan. The earth goddess whom you have insulted may refuse to give us her increase, and we shall all perish.” A priest who is angry with Okonkwo for breaking the sacred week of peace says this quote. It lets us know that what Okonkwo did was wrong and that in his village everything is fair. It is his carelessness that results in his banishment from his village for seven years, and it is his fiery temper which makes him kill a white man and then pushes him into taking his own life. Okonkwo is a ‘tragic hero’ whom is superior to other characters however his temper and his actions lead him to destroy himself. Okonkwo’s life is intertwined with fate. Was it fate that his gun went of killing the dead man’s son or was it just a careless error by Okonkwo? This incident could be classed as fate as it happens right after Okonkwo helps in the killing of Ikefuma despite being warned not to.

Okonkwo’s eldest son is called Nwoye and he lives in the shadow of Okonkwo. Okonkwo has high hopes for Nwoye as he hopes that when he dies Nwoye will be a strong man who will be able to run his father’s household when Okonkwo is dead. Nwoye however has different ideas and his interests are more similar to his grandfather’s than his fathers. This earns him many beating from Okonkwo, as he is adamant that he will grow up to be a strong man. When Ikefuma arrives in Okonkwo’s house Nwoye takes a liking to him and treats him as an older brother who he looks up to. With the influence of Ikefuma, Nwoye much to his father’s delight begins to become more masculine. Okonkwo backs off Nwoye not beating him and Nwoye begins to win Okonkwo’s approval. Even with this masculine influence Nwoye Is still in conflict with himself. He makes a point of scorning feminine things to please his father however secretly Nwoye misses his mother’s stories. When Ikefuma is killed Nwoye misses him and retreats into himself becoming more and more alienated and wrapped up in his own thoughts. He begins to question some of the tribe’s customs and when the missionaries arrive he finds himself drawn to them despite his father’s hatred towards them. Nwoye’s joining of the Christians could be seen as a rebellion towards his father as he seems to find peace once he has left his father. Okonkwo disowns him and curses himself for giving birth to such an ‘effeminate’ son. He blames himself for not being tough enough on the boy even though Nwoye receives several beatings. Was Nwoye destined to leave his father or was it due to the heavy hand and lack of respect that Okonkwo showed him? It could be said that Nwoye left because due to Okonkwo’s actions, which were his own actions and not that of fate.

Mr Brown is the author’s attempt to create a balanced colonial presence in Okonkwo’s country. Mr Brown is a friendly white man who listen to the villagers stories, beliefs and he listens most importantly to their opinions. This is how he succeeds in winning a large number of converts. Mr Brown accepts any coverts unconditionally and this shows his sympathetic nature towards the inhabitants of the villages. Mr Browns name hints at the fact that he can successfully navigate between the racial differences between the white people and the villagers. Mr Brown however is replaced with Reverend Smith who despises the villagers thinking that they are inferior to him and the coverts. Reverend Smith is the complete opposite to Mr Brown and he lets the coverts do whatever they please to annoy the villagers. Reverend Smith is a small-minded character and some of the things he says about Mr Brown after Mr Browns leaving illustrate the colonial’s intolerance towards any sympathy shown towards the villagers. The strictness of Reverend Smith brings around the downfall of Okonkwo so Mr Brown’s leaving could be regarded as fate.

The text has two major themes, which are ‘the struggle between tradition and change’ and ‘varying interpretations of masculinity’. These play an important role in the novel.
The main theme of the novel is the struggle between change and tradition and throughout the novel we see how the change from their old ways of life to the new life of Christianity affects the characters. The new regime angers Okonkwo who is afraid in a way of losing her personal status that he has earned also he believes that the new religion is not manly. Many of the clan’s outcasts find that if they join Christianity they will have a new-elevated status and will not be placed below everyone else. Throughout the book the villagers are caught between resisting and welcoming this new religion. Many are against this change like Okonkwo however many are for it. “Does the white man understand our custom about land?” “How can he when he does not even speak our tongue? But he says that our customs are bad; and our own brothers who have taken up his religion also say that our customs are bad. How do you think we can fight when our own brothers have turned against us? The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our 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.” This quote appears in a conversation between Obierika and Okonkwo when they are discussing the white men. Obierika is another who believes that the new religion is bad and he talks about the impossibility’s of the Umuofian’s leaving their traditional methods of doing things for the unfamiliar customs of the white man. The new influence that the white men bring threatens to extinguish skills needed for the survival of Okonkwo’s tribe such as traditional methods of farming, harvesting, cooking and building. These skills were essential for the survival of Okonkwo’s people but now they are being eradicated by the influences of the white men.

A minor theme of the book is varying interpretations of masculinity. Much of Okonkwo’s violence came from him trying to be the opposite of his weak father. He see’s views such as his fathers to be weak and therefore he calls them feminine. Okonkwo’s clans society is very much sexist. The word for a man who has taken no titles in the clan is ‘agbala’, we as the reader are told that this also means woman. Okonkwo is so violent as he believes that anger is the only emotion a man should show and that any other emotions are feminine which is why he frequently beats his wives and occasionally threatens to kill them. We also see this in Okonkwo when he accompanies the men on the trip to kill Ikefuma, when the boy runs to him for help he cuts him down as he is afraid of looking weak. When Okonkwo is exiled he flee’s to his motherland where his mothers kin live. This is a chance for him to get in touch with his feminine side however throughout the exile he reinforces his ideology that men are better than women. Okonkwo’s feeling is that anything weak is feminine. Okonkwo is always seen as a violent character that loses his temper often. This is not the action of fate but it is Okonkwo’s own free will.

The characters and the themes of the book help the reader to decide whether they think that Okonkwo is in charge of his own life or whether they believe that his downfall was inevitable due to fate. At various points in the book we are left to decide whether it was fate or Okonkwo’s actions that caused the results. For example did the killing of Ikefuma by Okonkwo lead to his exile later on in the book?
Was Okonkwo’s destined to his fate or was his downfall in his own hands? This essay has looked at some of the main characters and at the themes of the novel. Okonkwo was in my opinion in control of his own life and if his temper and anger had not got the better of him or his desire to be the best then his life would have turned out differently. His fear of looking weak led to his own undoing.