Allusions In Things Fall Apart

Upon Okonkwo’s arrival back to Umuofia from his exile, things changed for the worse. When the missionaries arrived with them they brought a new system of government, laws, and a court system. The Igbo people were getting sentenced to prison where they were tortured for breaking the white man’s laws with which they were not familiar. Achebe challenges the colonial narrative by demonstrating that the Igbo people had rules, laws, and a court system even before the missionaries

Also, such indication can be found in the narrated folktale stories by Okonkwo’s wives about the earth goddess, Ani, and the god of the sky, Chukwu. The balance of genders that the spiritual world of Umuofia society in Achebe’s novels reflects upon indicates at the same time the chaos that Okonkwo’s world develops to. By ignoring females and their importance in his life, Okonkwo fulfils Obierika’s warning when he commits suicide, thus giving in under Ani’s

In most fairy tales and novels a humble male role is used to dictate the normality of writing. In “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo, a strong male role is not only that, a lead character, but he is also cruel and prone to violent tendencies In the novel Okonkwo experiences harsh changes when the white men first came and at the beginning of colonialism. In “Things Fall Apart”, Achebe uses Okonkwo to display the negative change in everyday Igbo culture after colonialism. In this novel by Achebe, before colonialism was introduced, Okonkwo was a known masculine member of Umuofia.

In Things Fall Apart Okonkwo’s eldest son Nwoye is very different than his father. He is not aggressive and manly but more effeminate. Okonkwo feels like Nwoye is a disappointment because he doesn’t follow his values while Nwoye loses all respect for his father because he doesn’t want to live in his shadow. Later on, Christian missionaries come to their village and Nwoye is taught that there is a better way to live and is amazed by it. The missionaries speak about a story of “...brothers who lived in darkness and in fear, ignorant love of God” (Achebe), which really touched Nwoye and made him find peace in leaving his father’s teachings and convert to

Among those of the same culture, individuals who are adaptive and open-minded can be successful when there is cultural collision. When the Igbo and European cultures collide, Okonkwo gradually spirals out of control, losing everything he values and his own sense of self. From the beginning of the novel, Achebe depicts Okonkwo as a virile warrior and a successful farmer within the Igbo tribe. Reacting with violence to anything he considers “womanly” or “weak”, “He was a man of action and man of war” (10). Because of his reputation as a warrior he is highly respected by his community.

By Achebe writing that Okonkwo has given up this prevents him from succeeding in stopping the new religion as well, and shows his feelings which is also

The old tribes of Africa had many different religions they practiced that conflicted greatly with Christianity’s teachings. The first of these was the offering of live sacrifices to tribal gods. These sacrifices could be as minute as an animal, or as serious as a human sacrifice. In Things Fall Apart, Ogbuefi Ezendu told Okonkwo that Ikemefuna must be killed, since the oracle, a priest, said so (Achebe 49). Christianity does not believe in human sacrifices, therefore Christianity would greatly improve the quality of life for Africans, especially

In Chinua Achebe novel, Things Fall Apart Nwoye a young man under Okonkwo’s responsibility is affected positively by the introduction of western ideas into the Ibo culture. This being said Nwoye has found a passion for being apart of a religion not known by any local in Igbo called Christianity, to some it was a blessing and to others a disgrace. To Okonkwo he feels that anybody who converts to Christianity is a disgrace to their village. And how surprising is it that his own son converts to a Christian. And in his conversion he tries to escape his strict culture and find out who he is as a person.

Okonkwo, a character in Chinua Achebe’s, Things Fall Apart, is a

That was held first came to know that Agbala was only another name for a woman that also mean a man who had taken the title” Achebe 15. Okonkwo not only was verbally abusive to his wife, but was verbally abusive to his oldest child; Nwoye. Okonkwo mentally killed the woman, through his words and thoughts. He had power and reign, through his words and how he treated the

Within Things Fall Apart, the Igbo people break the kola nut and pray to the gods. The Igbo people show respect in this way because they are trying to please the gods. “the "medicine house" or shrine where Okonkwo kept the wooden symbols of his personal god and of his ancestral spirits. He worshiped them with sacrifices of kola nut, food and palm-wine, and offered prayers to them on behalf of himself, his three wives and eight children” (10). Achebe uses both palm-wine and kola nuts as specific examples of things that Okonkwo sacrifices to the gods because through the novel palm-wine and kola nuts are used as tools to show respect.

His fear of weakness and failure is derived from his father, Unoka’s failures, which ignite Okonkwo’s misogynistic views. Throughout his lifetime, Okonkwo associates femininity with weakness because of Unoka, who was called an “agbala” or woman by the people of Umuofia. Since women have this reputation for weakness, Okonkwo lives with constant fear that he will be given the same title as his father. Okonkwo’s first son, Nwoye’s effeminacy reminds Okonkwo of his own father. He says, "I have done my best to make Nwoye grow into a man, but there is much of his mother in him ."(Achebe, 66).

Okonkwo and Ezinma, an unexpressed love. In his novel, ‘Things Fall Apart’, Achebe presents to the reader, a story based around the village of Umuofia. Through his narration which is close to an oral tradition, we discover the culture and commodities of that village as well as of some surrounding villages. Superstitions, festivals and traditions, everything is vividly described.

Not only did Okonkwo face the new idea of Christianity, but so did Chinua Achebe. During Achebe’s interview with The Paris Review, Achebe says “My parents were early converts to Christianity in my part of Nigeria” (Brooks). He saw the effects of the Christian religion moving through his village, something that Okonkwo couldn’t bear to live through. Religion is a major topic in the novel. Chinua Achebe uses religion to show the reader the God in the Igbo culture, their belief in reincarnation, and the colonization of Christianity.

Okonkwo is often described in terms of fire and flames,so to him fire symbolizes potential, masculinity,and life. The locusts symbolize the arrival of the white man and missionaries. Achebe uses these