Okonkwo's Death In Things Fall Apart

In things Fall Apart By Chinua Achebe Okonkwo, the main character, takes part in the death of an innocent boy named Ikemefuna despite the warnings not to. Afterwards Okonkwo goes through much grief and sorrow, fighting a battle within himself. Through Okonkwo’s grief after Ikemefuna’s death, Achebe reflects on the Ibo tribal customs, human sacrifice and the universal law of kill one’s own son. When Okonkwo was given the news of Ikemefuna was to be killed, he was told by elder Ezeudu not to take part in it. Yet he went and when Ikemefuna ran towards him after the first blow, he took his machete and killed him i fear of looking “weak.” Afterwards Okonkwo falls into a depression where he does not eat and is only self destructive for 2 days. His son Nwoye becomes very fearful of him and escapes from
Or perhaps it may be easier to see if you’re educated. Achebe understands the differences and presents what should be obvious knowledge, that you shouldn’t kill a person, and wraps a person’s culture through it and makes it more complex. The killing becomes less of a evil murder and you begin understand the culture more. It's similar to knowledge, what may seem to be common knowledge, another person could be completely oblivious. In Things Fall Apart the first reverend, Mr. Brown, went and talked to an elder of the clan and learned about their belief and was much more open to talking about it and seeing how their lives were. Mr. Smith, who took over after Mr.Brown, was much more conservative and narrow minded which caused much more tension than previously with Mr. Brown. In this case religious beliefs cause the people to be narrow minded because lack of understanding. It's not just religion, people tend to surround themselves with likeminded people and when someone different comes in it seems like an invasion, in the book it's a literal