In Things Fall Apart, the author Achebe purposely characterises Okonkwo as a tragic hero in order to reflect the collapsing Umuofia society and destruction of the whole Igbo culture. In the novel, Okonkwo’s hermatia includes his hyper masculinity, being too quick to action without thinking situations through, and being too quick to anger. Both being quick to action and quick to anger contradict Igbo value, which ultimately leads to his peripeteia and Okonkwo getting banished. Achebe did this on purpose in order to show what happens when one lives in a very unique culture, but does not follow its values. Even though he is a well respected man due to his many titles and wealth that he has been able to accumulate, his obsession for power and personal failures act as a barrier to greater things, and rather lead to his downfall. In the novel, his downfall begins when he kills Ogbuefi’s son by accident as Ogbuefi’s funeral. Similarly, the Igbo culture also experienced a downfall due to it being colonised. The society’s downfall can be clearly seen through the character Okonkwo when he returns from his seven year exile and finds Umuofia being colonised. His inability to accept change and being colonised ultimately leads to his downfall as he tries to resolve the problem the only way he knows, by fighting back, as he does not want to be seen as someone weak like his father. However the others do not believe that this should be solved with violence, and would rather accept the change. This finally leads to Okonkwo hanging himself as he is unable to adapt to change and looses faith in his community. This also reflects the downfall of the Igbo culture due to colonisation. Achebe characterises Okonkwo like this purposely, as this also reflects the Igbo culture prior and throughout its downfall.
It was insightful to see how you were able to draw parallels between the downfall of Igbo society and the downfall of Okonkwo. I was able to identify that as well. Achebe cunningly crafted such a character to accurately depict his society. Well done (:
ReplyDeleteLukas, I like that you linked Okonkwo's downfall to the downfall of the Igbo culture itself. I agree as well with the fact that Okonkwo's downfall was caused by his actions which contrasted the Igbo culture and beliefs. Well done!
ReplyDeleteHi Lukas! For me as the reader it was really nice to see you go into a lot of detail with your blog post and talk about the actual "falling apart" of Okonkwo and how that can be related to other things.
ReplyDeleteYour connections with the downfall of Umuofia and Okonkwo are quite interesting, showing us how he uses this character to, in essence represent the culture and peoples downfall through his, with the novel.
ReplyDeleteWell Done Lukas