Preview

Suicide In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
513 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Suicide In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart
Things Fall Apart Okonkwo, a fearsome warrior with three wives, has made many decisions during his life, however, one deplorable arbitration affected the lives of the jillion that held him close to their hearts. This decision, is of course his suicide. While many believe suicide is never the answer in Okonkwo's case it was the answer, he committed suicide because he believed that the men of Umuofia have become women and that the militaristic Umuofia that he once loved was no longer warmongering and seemed to hesitate greatly when going to war. This reconciliation finally disclosed that things have fallen apart for the people of Umuofia and Okonkwo.
Okonkwo, the warmonger of Umuofia, renown for his second to none wrestling skills and his aggressive nature, was the son of Unoka. Over his lifetime he has made many decisions that impacted his life and his family’s lives. Such as, when he killed Ikemefuna. He killed Ikemefuna as a sacrifice to Mbaino, but more importantly he killed him to make evident that he was a true man and feared nothing. This eventually lead to Okonkwo's mental state deteriorating and his son joining the Missionaries. “Okonkwo did not taste any food for two days after the
…show more content…
The main song and dance for his suicide was because he could not handle the changes that were happening within his tribe with the white men arriving. He views the white men and his fellow clansmen that have indoctrinated their ways as irresolute and lackadaisical. He is the only one resisting the tide of change and he tries to revert everyone to their original ferocious selves by killing the colonial officer, but to no avail. So after trying every other method he could think of he then kills himself. That’s why his suicide was the correct decision. Okonkwo, the strong man of Umuofia, was a relic of the past his barbarous nature was left out in the cold after the white men started taking over

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Okonkwo Change Quotes

    • 1573 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The white men pulled in enough individuals from Umuofia, particularly the individuals who involved the most reduced positions and the individuals who scrutinized the past request, to debilitate the town's adequacy and conviction. Those esteemed by the new establishments were those like Unoka. The better approaches for Umuofia were too fundamentally not quite the same as what Oknonkwo had set up as his way in his childhood. Despite the fact that suicide conflicted with the Umuofian conventions, it hadn't generally been about those customs on the most fundamental level, and Okonkwo did one final thing that his dad could never have had the quality of conviction to do. As it were, Okonkwo's suicide conformed to the methods for Umuofia; the genuine Umuofia that Okonkwo had possessed the capacity to relate to and that he looked for approval from had murdered itself with its malleability towards the new ways.…

    • 1573 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Heroes have existed all throughout history, whether in real life or in a novel. On the spectrum of heroes, they can range from epic heroes such as Odysseus and Hercules, who overcome many obstacles and succeed in the end of their stories, to tragic heroes such as Oedipus and Hamlet, who are brought down by a conflict or by their own weakness. Harry Potter could be defined as a hero, for he had faced many, many obstacles throughout his life and spent it fighting against an opposing force. In the end, he sacrificed himself but still succeeded and changed the lives of others for the better. Now, replace “Harry Potter” with “Okonkwo”. Does that still apply to the scenario in the same way? In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo plays the role…

    • 1342 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Although believed solely to represent his fall to weakness, Okonkwo’s suicide has far-reaching consequences for his tribe and culture.…

    • 697 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Okonkwo is a wealthy and respected warrior of the Umuofia clan, a lower Nigerian tribe that is part of a consortium of nine connected villages, including Okonkwo's village, Iguedo. In his youth, he brought honor to his village by beating Amalinze the Cat in a wrestling contest. Until his match with Okonkwo, the Cat had been undefeated for seven years. Okonkwo is completely unlike his now deceased father, Unoka, who feared the sight…

    • 2194 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Although a titled man, Okonkwo has no more control of his beloved village and culture. He knows that there was "fright in [the] tumult" (151) of the people, and knows that he would not be in control of his life much longer. Okonkwo senses the crumbling of the community’s rigid traditional structure and strict values, and thus attempts to escape the faithless world. Although Okonkwo's suicide may seem like a cowardly act of escaping failure, he dies preserving the traditions that he so vehemently honored and revered. With white missionaries changing the culture of his village, the only control that Okonkwo has over his life is through death. He chooses to end his life with his values intact rather than die seeing his beloved Umuofia fall to white men’s hands. Okonkwo’s faith in his culture is so ingrained that he sacrifices the chance for an honorable death to be instead “buried like a dog" (153). Okonkwo gives up everything he has built his life up to, only to die without honors just like his father, However, Okonkwo leaves the world an Umuofian…

    • 371 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Okonkwo Research Paper

    • 856 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Okonkwo is a well-respected man and warrior of Umuofia who rose from poverty and descended to destitution. As a boy Okonkwo was able to work hard and gain status, at his height he was progressively disgraced by a series of his own actions and banished from the tribe for several years. After returning Okonkwo gained some traction in his village but was imprisoned and died disgracefully through suicide. The most harmful event in his personal tragedy is the accidental murder of a clansman which led to his exile.…

    • 856 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    "Okonkwo's machete descended twice and the man's head lay beside his uniformed body" (146). Okonkwo, the son of the effeminate and lazy Unoka, strives to make his way in a world that seems to value manliness. In so doing, he rejects everything for which he believes his father stood. Unoka was idle, poor, profligate, cowardly, gentle, and interested in music and conversation. Okonkwo consciously adopts opposite ideals and becomes productive, wealthy, thrifty, brave, violent, and adamantly opposed to music and anything else that he perceives to be "soft," such as conversation and emotion. He is gruff, at times, and usually unable to express his feelings, but his emotions and motivations are quite complex. Despite his overall image as a violent brute, Achebe shows Okonkwo as a tender, worried father and a hard worker, who had "cracked [his palm-kernels] himself" (19).…

    • 530 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    How Does Okonkwo Change

    • 613 Words
    • 3 Pages

    He was a man of action, a man of war. Unlike his father he could stand the look the blood. In Umuofia’s first war he was the first to bring home a human head” (Achebe 10). This shows that Okonkwo would not let anything get in the way of him. He is willing to fight in order to be seen as a strong and brave person.…

    • 613 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Okonkwo’s overbearing pride in himself results in unforeseen consequences for his family and others which come in contact with him throughout the book. Case in point, when Okonkwo was told by an elder of the Umuofia not be getting involved with the killing of Ikemefuna because as he was told “that boy calls you father.” Prompting, Okonkwo to be exiled and sent to live with his mother for 7 years. Which resulted from the unfortunate killing of Ezeudu's son from the misfiring of a bullet. Rather than just listening Okonkwo’s pride slapped him in the face and being looked upon as weak was no option.…

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Okonkwo- An influential clan leader in Umuofia. Since early childhood, Okonkwo’s embarrassment about his lazy, squandering, and effeminate father, Unoka, has driven him to succeed. Okonkwo’s hard work and prowess in war have earned him a position of high status in his clan, and he attains wealth sufficient to support three wives and their children. Okonkwo’s tragic flaw is that he is terrified of looking weak like his father. As a result, he behaves rashly, bringing a great deal of trouble and sorrow upon himself and his family.…

    • 1227 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    On Okonkwo’s return to Umuofia after his exile, he meets a different Umuofia that is being controlled by the white men from Europe and a Umuofia that is drifting to Christianity “The church had led many astray…the white men had also brought a government”. He is furious and enraged at the fact that Umuofia does not fight back “He had spoken violently…on their action” (Achebe, 108) he makes this point known at the meeting of the elders, and offers a solution to kill the white man. When the people of Umuofia do not yield his advice he follows his emotions and commits suicide. Okonkwo did not think logically about this because if he had, he would have seen a perspective where his death does not solve the problem of colonization, or his death causing Umuofia to go to war. From Okonkwo’s story, it is clear how solving a problem two different ways leads to two different…

    • 1622 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    At the conclusion of Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo hangs himself feeling he can no longer stand to live in his deteriorating clan, due to its becoming weak willed and no longer fighting its enemies, in other words the White Men. Okonkwo figures…

    • 174 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Some could argue that it takes great courage to take their own life, but in Okonkwo’s case it showed his weakness. If one kills himself to avoid punishment for his actions, then he is weak. Okonkwo, the prodigal son of Umuofia, became a coward when he took his life. He used suicide as a method to avoid being punished for…

    • 190 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Okonkwo Being Exiled

    • 868 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Although he feels out of place because he has to live in a new home surrounded by new people, he also learns how to become more lenient about following his customs or social norms. He realizes if he is in a situation where he can save his tribe from falling apart, and it requires him to against his tribe’s customs, he will do it because it does not matter how many titles he earns during his lifetime if his tribe will become extinct. Although it is easy to assume Okonkwo’s tribe is wiped into almost extinction a couple of years after his death, his suicide allows his tribe to exist a little…

    • 868 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the book Things Fall Apart, we see Okonkwo’s character change numerous ways. At the beginning of the book you see Okonkwo “come up from the coldest places.” One example of Okonkwo progressing from a rough place is on page 18, “With a father like Unoka, Okonkwo did not have the start in life which many young men had,” (Achebe). Unfortunately, Okonkwo did not have the life most men in Umuofia had. Most of the men in Okonkwo’s tribe were able to gain respect by having a father with high status. Sadly, Okonkwo’s father was a failure and Okonkwo could not inherit anything from him. In the end, Okonkwo had to gain his triumph by himself. Another example of Okonkwo coming up from a rough place is on page 16, “Okonkwo did not have the…

    • 260 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays