When Things Fall Appart

From greatness to failure

When Thins s Fall Apart, written by Chinua Achebe begins as a story about the life of a man named Okonkwo. It tells a story beginning from his childhood and ending with his death. As a child he struggled to be different from his father, who was considered a failure. Although his father was looked upon as a failure in society, in the eyes of the tribe, and by his own son, he contained something that Okonkwo never had: humility and happiness in the smallest things. His son, Nwoye, was more like Okonkwo's father and this leads them to drift off in different directions.Most of the theme is developed through the plot of the story and through a man and his struggle against fear and anger (the main character, Okonkwo). Throughout the book he tries to resolve the problems that develop all around him and within himself. As the story progresses, conflict overwhelms him and leads to his downfall and the downfall of the Ibo culture.

Okonkwo was a courageous and wealthy man throughout his tribe. In his culture, where titles, money, and wives were looked upon, Okonkwo received many titles and had several children with several wives. He worked hard for his success, for he was not born into it. His father, Unoka, was a well-known for his laziness in the village. He was the root of Okonkwo's embarrassment. Since his childhood, Okonkwo was ashamed of his father, who, "In his day he was lazy and improvident and was quite incapable of thinking about tomorrow" . In the standard of his clan, Unoka was a coward, lazy, and wastrel man who spent money wastefully. When he was a child, a boy once called Okonkwo's father an Agbala, which means "a woman" as well as a man who has no title. He acquired a lot of unpaid debts until his death. Ashamed of his father Okonkwo forced himself to work hard and when working to never be like his father and hate everything his father liked.

He is belligerent and cold-hearted. pointing out these flaws in Okonkwo's character seems to foreshadow his downfall. Since Okonkwo probably represents the 'intolerant culture', that culture's downfall is also foreshadowed. Later more obvious instances occur. Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna, a captive who stayed at Okonko's home,because the Oracle had said so . One can see that Okonko's life first began to fall apart when Ikemefuna, He was deeply saddened when he was killed. One can see the effects on Okonko from that event. First Okonko was unable to sleep for the following three days. He also kept on getting drunk, and that was a sign that he was depressed. This incident also had a long-term effect on Okonko. From then on his family would look at him as if it were his fault that Ikemefuna is dead. This episode can be seen as an event where Okonko loses some faith from his family. This corresponds to Okonko losing faith in his father. His decision of killing the boy is definitely unreasonable, and he only acted on what he was told was right. Just like the rest