Amoolya's Blog

Chinua Achebe’s, Things Fall Apart, was influenced by his personal history to an extent, being an African who valued his traditional roots, but at the same time embraced Christianity as his religion. Written in 1958, Things Fall Apart has a combination of both the Igbo values, and the colonizers’ advancements in order to satisfy and advocate for both the sides of European colonization. Unlike Achebe, who tries to justify both sides, the protagonist Okonkwo is a stubborn character that is completely resistant towards the oppressors and cannot adjust and evolve to the change brought to his village. Furthermore, Achebe tries to highlight his own religion  in a more positive side, despite it being brought into Africa forcefully,  by including soft characters such as Mr. Brown to support Christianity, and contrast the Igbo values.

Okonkwo’s character gives insight to the reader’s understanding by revealing his disability to see the balance between man and woman, unlike the conventions of his Igbo culture. His stubborn support for an anarchical society, turns him to be hyper masculine and dominant over women. This can be seen in his household where he shows his dominance over his wives, as well as his children. Furthermore, he encourages his older son, Nwoye, to follow on his footpath of being more masculine by working hard and doing manly chores around the house, rather than sit and listen to his mother’s silly fables, which he actually prefers. This is because Okonkwo found characteristics of his own father (Unoka), in his son’s personality, which is idleness and laziness. To Okonkwo, he categorizes these signs as weakness and failure because his father, who shared the same negative qualities, was called Agbala – a word that meant “woman”. His father was a failure who left a lot of debt in his life and there

Okonkwo’s character is the main protagonist of the novel, Things Fall Apart. He is a character that despise any signs of weaknesses or feminine characteristics displayed, especially by a man. When his Ibo village decides to not go to war with the Christians, he was gravely disappointed and defined his people as weak and cowards like women. His hyper masculinity was one of his flaws that prevented this hero to end up being a tragic hero. Okonkwo’s character serves to be as a person who’s blind to new ideas and sticks to his routine. He doesn’t see the grey area in life but only sees the extremity of black and white. He’s not open- minded and doesn’t like the imbalance caused in his village by the colonizers. Even at this point, he wanted to wage war against them like they would usually do in order to display their masculinity and manliness but he was disappointed when this did not happen. He believed that the people had become too soft and that his chi isn’t supporting him even tho

#1 The Missionaries arrive In Abame and mass murdered the villagers by shooting them down. This was an important scene to be noted in the novel because the Britishers claim to be peaceful and God loving, therefore, it would be least expected that they go and bring down a whole village. This incident reveals the Britishers’ true nature and their immense power that they would use (weaponry) when they are stopped from getting what they want. #2 When Ikemefuna got killed by Okonkwo, the scene characterizes Okonkwo’s personality itself. Although he did seem fond of the boy, he was not hesitant to kill him (he didn’t have to) when the time arrived, suggesting that he’s prepared to do anything. Later on, he was restless following the killing. Okonkwo’s mind set could be claimed to be complex as he is burdened by the nature of his “bold” and strong character, which he tries to maintain in fronat of everyone, so that he’s no seen like his failed father. But on the other hand, the pai