Things Fall Apart Essay examples -- essays research papers

Things F every(prenominal) asunder     Chinua Achebe?s Things Fall Apart is a narrative story that follows the life-time of an African man called Okonkwo. The setting of the book is in eastern Nigeria, on the eve of British colonialism in Africa. The novel illustrates Okonkwo?s struggles, triumphs, and his eventual downfall, all of which basically coincide with the Igbo?s society?s struggle with the Christian religion and British government. In this essay I will go on a biographical account of Okonwo, which will serve to help visualize that social, political, and economic institutions of the Igbos.     At the beginning of the novel Okonkwo was a fairly wealthy and well-respected appendage of the Igbo society, but it had not always been that way for him. Okonkwo?s military chaplain, Unoka, had been a lazy man who would rather play his flute than take fretfulness of his crops. Unoka was said to be a charming man, and was able to borrow e normous amounts of money from his fri blocks, but was never able to pay it back. As a result, Okonkwo has grown up very poor and ashamed of his lazy father. At one intimate in the book, Okonkwo remembers hearing one of his playmates calling his father an ?agbala,? which was the word for woman, but all described a man who had interpreted not titles (13). Okonkwo never forgets this, and actually develops a deep-seated fear that nation will think that he is weak like his father. As I mentioned, Okonkwo became very well known, and his wealth and prestige rested solely on his own personal achievements. Okonkwo had received no inheritance from his poor father, no land and no money. As a young man, Okonkwo had been very booming wrestler, and as he grew older he became a well-known warrior. He was said to have brought home five human heads, which was a capacious achievement even for men who were some(prenominal) older that he was. At the beginning of the story, Okonkwo had obtained two titles, and had the respect of every man from all nine-spot villages of Umuofia. Symbols of his wealth and prestige were his family and his compound. As I mentioned earlier, Okonwo had received no inheritance, and at the time of this story Okonkwo is still fairly young, and the fact that he had tercet wives, several children, and a very productive piece of land showed that Okonkwo was a very diligent worker. ?Okonkwo ruled his household with a heavy hand. His wives, especially... ... a meeting, Okonkwo, knowing that his clansmen would do nothing to drive the white men extraneous form their villages, killed a messenger. He then went home and committed suicide.      Okonkwo is a great deal described as being similar to characters in Greek tragedies. Okonkwo knew that the end of his clan was coming, and that they would do nothing to prevent it from happening. He took his life go forth of desperation. He had struggled his whole life to become a respected membe r of his community, and suddenly his world is turned upside down and changed forever because of an accident. Okonkwo sees that he is fighting a losing battle, so he quits. Suicide was one of the biggest offenses that could be committed against the earth, and Okonkwo?s own clansmen could not bury him. Okonkwo?s demolition symbolizes the end of patriarchy in Umuofia. The last page of the book is from the point of view of the white Commissioner, who notes that he wants to include a paragraph on Okonkwo?s life in his book entitled The Pacification of the archaic Tribes of Lower Niger. Okonkwo?s struggles, triumphs and defeats are all reduced to a paragraph, much like his culture and society will be reduced.