spec study

“Things fall apart”, written by Chinua Achebe, set in Nigeria in the 1960s is a three dimensional story. It is built around Okonkwo who later commits suicide. This study will examine the downfall of Okonkwo to deduce from it whether he is responsible of his tragedy or it is simply a matter of fate used by the writer.
Okonkwo is a man physically strong and a member of the Igbo tribe. He had won fame as the greatest wrestler since his earlier age in the villages surrounding Umuofia and he is also well known throughout the clan because of his wealth.”Okonkwo’s fame had grown like a bush-fire in the harmattan”: this shows how he has risen from nothing to a powerful ,wealthy and proud man.
His life is pretty much directed by his culture and his religion(his ancestors beliefs).
Although Okonkwo is seen as a great and determined man he has his weaknesses. He never shows his feelings and this is due to the Igbo culture that says that any man being too sentimental is a weak man in other words a “woman” which is “Agbala” in Igbo. And being that hard on himself by not showing his real feeling is a sign of weakness. This weakness is the fear to be called a woman. He also tends to follow word by word his culture and wants to be a model by ruling his family with an iron fist:” No matter how prosperous a man was if he was not able to rule his women and his children ,he was not really a man”: this a word of Okonkwo referring to his father who was a debtor. He owed everyone in the village and never pay attention to his child future.” he neither inherited a barn nor a title nor even a young wife”. Okonkwo,based on the bad reputation his father has in all clan does not want to resemble him. This is why he is harsh with his family and himself. His downfall is due to his extreme harshness and starts when his gun explodes during the funeral of one of the great man of the clan .He is called Ezeudi. During the funeral of Ezeudi his gun didn’t just explode but killed a young boy. Okonkwo’s nightmare starts since then as he has to leave the village for seven years.
He has to start all over again on his mother land. That was not as dreadful as seeing his clan being taken over by missionaries when he gets back after his seven years in exile. He could see himself not considered as a great man of the clan because of the arrival of the missionaries.:” nobody organised a feast to welcome him”. Another thing that increases his anger is that Nwoye,his son, integrated the missionaries and was no longer observing the laws of their ancestors. Okonkwo can also be sometimes ill-tempered and act without thinking carefully. He can not control his anger: “answer me!!” roared Okonkwo,”before I kill you! “.That was the way he reacts when he finds out that his son was going to church. Seeing his clan splitting apart by the new laws of the white men he was grieved .A revenge has then risen from his side as he is a proud and well attached to his ancestors’ beliefs. He wanted Umuofia to go for war but as a matter of coincidence five messengers have joined in the meeting. There was where Okonkwo attacked the head messenger and killed him. There again he has been without help from Umofia because they left the other messengers escape. In result he was not sure anymore of why he did so:” why did he do it?”, he heard voices asking him. This again shows how quickly he gets enraged. After that acting and having seen that no hope was left for him ,he hung himself. This is because he didn’t want to be killed under the law of the white men. As a proud man and a conservative person he saved his pride to please his ancestors.
To sum up, the status, strength and belief of Okonkwo all together lack an element which is how to control his anger. Also his exaggerated pretence of not being a” woman” makes him a bit mad. Since he believes that a man can manipulate his own destiny, he is the subject of his downfall.