Free Essays on Things Fall Apart

I will not be able to truly define the importance of â€Å"Things Fall Apart† in the African culture and especially the Ibo culture. Reading after reading, you get to embrace more the real context of the book. Chinua Achebe had accomplished a brilliant portrait of the traditional Africa. It is also true that without a preliminary introduction to the principles of the tradition one would be lost. That is where â€Å"Muntu†, from Janheinz Jahn, particularly helps. It introduces the cultural elements of a traditional tribe such as: Nommo, Magara, ancestral presences and Muntu. In â€Å"Things Fall Apart†, these terms are present; probably not explicitly but through the rituals, sacrifices and characters, those terms live. In the following pages, I am going to try to share with you what I discovered and how I interpreted the principles of â€Å"Muntu† in â€Å"Things Fall Apart†. I am going to browse some important situations; I think will illustrate th ose principles and put my thought on the matter. In the first few pages, we are exposed to the relation between Okonkwo and its father, Unoka. As different they appear to be, there lives crossed the same path; dying without burial. Unoka is a peaceful man, and likes to play music and instruments. Also he is a great talker, somewhat always getting what he is seeking. But as well, he is as lazy and debtful as a man can be. On the other hand, his son, Okonkwo, is a real strong man. His life is driven by fear and anger. Fear, because he is working hard not to become like his father; anger, because all he inherited from his father is debts; no barns, no yam-seeds and on top he had, from an early age, to work to feed his family and his mother who implies as well his father: a woman could not eat if her husband was starving. It probably would explain why Okonkwo did not grow as mentally as he grew physically. I mean that despite the living of Unoka, he had a very strong Nommo (power of the word). He a... Free Essays on Things Fall Apart Free Essays on Things Fall Apart Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe Things Fall Apart provides excellent examples of an African culture, in a way that it seems more like an anthropological case study, as opposed to a novel. It is because of this unusual format that it gives the me a chance to see the roles that people play in their society, especially in a culture that is far different from the one in which I live. As I look at the society in which the Ibo people live, I can draw a similar parallel between some of the roles of the characters and the roles that some people play in our society. It is this principle that connects all cultures to a similar base that cultures either are, or once were distinctly patriarchal, as seen in Things Fall Apart and American societies. In Things Fall Apart, we see Okonkwo as a very strong warrior, and respected member of his community. He has three wives and eight children. He has achieved such a high status in his society through his fighting ability and diplomatic capabilities. Therefore, he becomes a member of the second highest class of men in his clan. Of course, he has to have some sort of a fatal flaw, which in his case is a violent temper. When I read this novel, his character reminded me of the character Oedipus in Oedipus the King written by Sophocles. In the case of Oedipus, he kills his father, unknowingly, because a man cut him off in his travels. The similarity to Okonkwo is that Okonkwo has been known to hurt people when he is having trouble communicating. This similarity provokes a foreshadowing of Okonkwo’s anger somehow forcing him to do something hasty, without realizing the consequences of what he is doing. This is presented when he provides the fatal blow to his honorary son, Ikemefuna . We are also presented with the service of Okonkwo’s three wives. Each of them is supposed to provide him with food for the day, and children to help him farm, and take over his farm, when he becomes too old to do manual l... Free Essays on Things Fall Apart The Effects that Masculinity Plays in Things Fall Apart The novel, Things Fall Apart, takes place in the late 1800’s. It is set in a small tribal community called Umuofia, which is located in southeastern Nigeria. During this time, there was a major thrust from the British to expand their power economically, politically, and culturally. The Umuofia tribe has the reputation of being a wealthy and powerful tribe. A young leader of this tribe, Okonkwo, has to overcome the failures of his father’s past ventures to feel like a worthy member. His father, Unoka, had been known for his lack of responsibility and laziness, which is a serious claim to a tribe with such a solid reputation. Unoka dies a shameful death and leaves his family nothing but his debts. Okonkwo strives to overcome this shame by being a fierce warrior and a successful farmer. His attempts to right the wrongs of his father affect his entire tribe and ultimately contribute to his early death. Okonkwo is introduced to the reader as a grown man who is already well established in his community. Unlike his father, he owns two barns filled with yams. He also has three wives and many children. Although he loves his family, he is unable to express this emotion, because he feels that this would be a sign of weakness. He treats the members of his family with a â€Å"heavy hand† and was known to have beaten his wives. â€Å"Okonkwo ruled his household with a heavy hand. His wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper, and so did his little children.† (p. 13) Gemma 2 A major revelation of Okonkwo’s masculinity is demonstrated in Chapter 2 when the Mbaino people murder a female member of Umuofia tribe. The Mbaino tribe was faced with a dilemma of choosing between war or paying restitution. Payment could be made by offering a young Mbaino boy, who is approximately 15 years old, and also by offering a virgin to the man... Free Essays on Things Fall Apart Okonkwo: Achebe’s Fallen Hero In Chinua Achebe’s most celebrated novel Thing’s Fall Apart, the central character has become the study of numerous literary critiques. Okonkwo, Achebe’s fallen protagonist, is often compared to the great tragic heroes of ancient Greek literature. His journey consists of both the rise and fall to greatness. Achebe centers his modern tragedy on a character that has been dubbed a hero. However, Okonkwo’s failure at the end of the novel leads readers to wonder why the author would allow the hero to fail. The last depiction of the strong protagonist illustrates a weak man coming short of being defined heroic. For many analysts, Okonkwo’s suicide may be the greatest tragedy in Achebe’s acclaimed novel (Nnoromele 1). So, this leads to the question: what causes Okonkwo’s downfall and eventual failure? Is Okonkwo’s suicide a heroic failure or simply a commentary on his culture’s expectations of a hero? The m ost important literary aspects to analyze throughout Things Fall Apart when contemplating Okonkwo’s failure or heroism are the innate character strengths and weaknesses of the protagonist, the transformation of the Umuofia way of life, and the Umuofia definition of a hero. In the end, Okonkwo must be viewed as a fallen hero and not as a failure. The necessary elements to research Okonkwo’s heroic nature should be his deep-rooted character strengths and weaknesses and the events that led to his eventual downfall. It must be noticed that one of Okonkwo’s greatest strengths, his aggressive nature, happens to be one of his greatest weaknesses as well. The sometimes violent personality of Okonkwo stems from his paternal heritage. Literary analyst Emeka Nwabueze finds that the protagonist’s foremost challenge in life is to defy everything his father had become in life (3). This revolt against his father leads Okonkwo to seek greatness and p... Free Essays on Things Fall Apart I will not be able to truly define the importance of â€Å"Things Fall Apart† in the African culture and especially the Ibo culture. Reading after reading, you get to embrace more the real context of the book. Chinua Achebe had accomplished a brilliant portrait of the traditional Africa. It is also true that without a preliminary introduction to the principles of the tradition one would be lost. That is where â€Å"Muntu†, from Janheinz Jahn, particularly helps. It introduces the cultural elements of a traditional tribe such as: Nommo, Magara, ancestral presences and Muntu. In â€Å"Things Fall Apart†, these terms are present; probably not explicitly but through the rituals, sacrifices and characters, those terms live. In the following pages, I am going to try to share with you what I discovered and how I interpreted the principles of â€Å"Muntu† in â€Å"Things Fall Apart†. I am going to browse some important situations; I think will illustrate th ose principles and put my thought on the matter. In the first few pages, we are exposed to the relation between Okonkwo and its father, Unoka. As different they appear to be, there lives crossed the same path; dying without burial. Unoka is a peaceful man, and likes to play music and instruments. Also he is a great talker, somewhat always getting what he is seeking. But as well, he is as lazy and debtful as a man can be. On the other hand, his son, Okonkwo, is a real strong man. His life is driven by fear and anger. Fear, because he is working hard not to become like his father; anger, because all he inherited from his father is debts; no barns, no yam-seeds and on top he had, from an early age, to work to feed his family and his mother who implies as well his father: a woman could not eat if her husband was starving. It probably would explain why Okonkwo did not grow as mentally as he grew physically. I mean that despite the living of Unoka, he had a very strong Nommo (power of the word). He a... Free Essays on Things Fall Apart Okonkwo plays a major role in the novel and is projected as a heroic figure and a wrestler who is constantly at war with others, with his ‘chi’, his legacy of his father whom he despises, his own character and finally, with the white man. Okonkwo’s world consists of the nine villages from Umuofia to Mbaino and areas outside of these boundaries have little significance to him, belonging simply to that vague realm â€Å"beyond.† He gives a lot of importance to personal achievements as he believes that these achievements bring honor to the village which in turn emphasizes the close tie between the individual and society. Yet Okonkwo has his weakness and it is these weaknesses that ultimately destroy the life he has created for himself. His self-determination is not only controlled by interneral but external forces as well. His impulsive and rash nature makes him break the rules of the sacred week of peace. It is his carelessness that results in his banishment from his village for seven years, and finally, it is again his fiery and rash temper which pushes him to kill a white man and consequently pushes him to take his own life. Okonkwo is a man who has grown up in a community, that, because of its passionate desire for survival, places its faith in the individual quality of ‘manliness.’ And it is an irony of fate that makes him start off with a disadvantage, on this score - the failure of his own father. It is the need for him to live down the shame of his father that compels him to an excessive adherence of the social code. This transforms every positive value that he has to into a weakness. Also, he pursues achievement with an obsessive single-mindedness that eventually degenerates into egocentricity. He thus, virtually flounders through his life, with the minor problems, which instead of strengthening him, carry him to a point of dissolution. The novel reflects this degeneration with respect to the traditional African way o... Free Essays on Things Fall Apart Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, is an historical narrative. It’s written with the historical knowledge of Britain colonizing Nigeria. Yet, it is from a view point which we are not used to reading from. Things Fall Apart is from the eyes of the colonized. The perspective is from Okonkwo, a respected elder, who can’t resist the invasion of western culture in his village. Africa was seen as an uneducated continent and very little was known by the Westerners about its land or people. Their culture was based on religion and nature. They worshipped many different gods and goddesses who represented every aspect of the nature, living and non living. According to the tribes, everything was living and should be respected. I’ve learned that the people in Africa lived in harmony with Nature. This is shown by the many references to nature in the novel. Some examples include: Okonkwo’s fame had grown like a bush fire in the harmattan, he drank palm win from morning till night and his eyes were red and fierce like the eyes of a rat when it was caught by the tail and dashed against the floor, he felt like a drunken giant walking with the limbs of a mosquito, and the earth burned like hot coals. I believe all these sayings indicate how important and alive nature is to the tribe. Yam appeared to be used to describe manliness, "yam stood for manliness and he could feed his family on yams from one harvest to another was a very great man indeed." Only the men were allowed to grow yams, not the women. It was considered the king of crops, the man crop. Another example is the kola which symbolizes prosperity, "He who brings kola brings life." The tribes had a very spiritual side. Their priests could heal people, either physically or they could use their psychic powers. For example, Ezinma was believed to be out of danger when the medicine man found her iyi-uwa. They also believed in peo... Free Essays on Things Fall Apart 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 des troy 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 ... Free Essays on Things Fall Apart Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a brilliant novel when discussing traditional African culture. It provides an anthropological method of explaining a heroic tale of an African man. This novel deals with a societal transformation that shattered a civilization. This piece of literature identifies the roles within a society in Africa before European colonialism took place and it also deals with the aftermath that tainted the African way of life. â€Å"Things Fall Apart†, demonstrates people’s positions in an enclosed structural system as well as looking at class in a worldview. This book does a fine job in explaining the global view during this particular time period as well as it focuses on the thoughts of one individual native man. A Southeastern Nigerian village is where the novel takes place. Achebe explains the values of the African tribe called the Igbos from this region. Europeans play an important role in the novel. European people can be seen as very different from the Igbos in a sense when relating their values and beliefs. In another light the beliefs can be seen as fairly similar. The social moral order of these two societies can be connected as much as they can be opposed. In understanding the social order of these two groups first one must understand the story. Achebe’s main character’s name is Okonkwo. He was a strong warrior that was known for his violent temper and his high status within his community. He was respected for his combating and diplomatic capabilities, making him an exalted man in his clan. He had three wives and eight children. Overall he was an exceptionally successful man compared to his father who had died in debt. The story is constructed on the lives of the Igbo people and the social mobility of Okonowo’s village Umuofia. The story is illustrated in matter that the reader can understand the daily tasks of the people and their roles. These tasks are shown through Okonowoï ¿ ½... Free Essays on Things Fall Apart In his novel â€Å"Things Fall Apart,† Chinua Achebe gives his readers an exclusive insight to the unique characteristics of the African people before and after the white mans intrusion of their culture. One of the most dynamic characters in the story was a man by the name of Okonkwo. He is described as being â€Å"well known throughout the nine villages and beyond. His fame rested on solid personal achievement† (3). This suggest that power, fame, and respect relied on the ability of a man to prove his strength in their society. Something that could possibly take a lifetime to acquire. Okonkwo was a man who was determined not to become the man his father was. His father was described as â€Å"lazy and improvident and quit incapable of thinking about tomorrow† (4). Nothing about his father was portrayed in Okonkwo. To him the definition of a â€Å"good man† was something totally opposite of his father. Fear, the fuel most often used by Okonkwo was perhaps his strongest flaw. Yet, it made him a strong and respected figure among his people. â€Å"It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father† (13). His desire to prosper regardless of his past with a father of whom he had no respect made him a strong and respected man. â€Å"Okonkwo was ruled by one passion-to hate everything that his father Unoka loved. One of those things was gentleness and another was idleness† (13). Okonkwo’s character presumed the role of a protagonist and yet he often portrayed the role of an antagonist as well. His strength and hard work paid off. He was very prosperous in his culture by providing a large home and plenty of food for himself and his family. He was respected by men whom he respected as well. This meant everything to Okonkwo. He could never let this image be lost for he longed to be amongst the highest of the tribe. In other words, he would do anything His loyalty to his b...