Okonkwo's Legacy In Things Fall Apart

Some may feel scared at first to go on their own and start something new, but in the end, we are just starting a legacy. In the novel, Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo who is the protagonist, is determined to gain high titles and become powerful in spite of his father’s weaknesses. Okonkwo wants his sons to inherit his power, but one of his son’s, Nwoye, wants to take a different route. Achebe uses Nwoye and the personal and cultural events that happen throughout the story to convey how they can lead to an individual’s perfunctory decision to create one’s own legacy. A father and son’s relationship will affect how the son will grow up and make choices. From the beginning, Okonkwo has been, “...constant[ly] nagging and beating. And so Nwoye was developing into a sad-faced youth”(14). Okonkwo constantly abusing Nwoye makes him stray away from his father. He loses respect
When the missionaries sang their song, Nwoye questioned the twins, “The hymn about brothers who sat in darkness… the question of the twins hiding in the bush”(147). In addition to Nwoye leaving his father, he separates from his culture and tribe. Nwoye believes that the tradition that the Igbo tribe has of killing twins is wrong. The new religion that Nwoye is attracted to also doesn’t agree with killing twins. The Christians having the same viewpoint as him makes Nwoye support and respect them. The Christian faith shows more diversity than the tribe, “That week they had a handful more converts. And for the first time they had a woman”(151). The missionaries accept a woman as a convert which shows the community that anyone is welcomed by the new faith. Nwoye likes the acceptance and he feels it’s the right fit for him. Nwoye has faced the traditions that the Igbo tribe have, and he dislikes them. Once Christianity is introduced to him, he joins right away and absorbs the