Okonkwo's Oldest Son example essay topic

Things Fall Apart China Achebe's Things Fall Apart is a narrative story that follows the life 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 give a biographical account of Okonwo, which will serve to help understand that social, political, and economic institutions of the Igbos. At the beginning of the novel Okonkwo was a fairly wealthy and well-respected member of the Igbo society, but it had not always been that way for him. Okonkwo's father, Unoka, had been a lazy man who would rather play his flute than take care of his crops.

Unoka was said to be a charming man, and was able to borrow large amounts of money from his friends, 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 point in the book, Okonkwo remembers hearing one of his playmates calling his father an? ambala, ? which was the word for woman, but all described a man who had taken not titles (13). Okonkwo never forgets this, and actually develops a deep-seated fear that people 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 successful 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 great achievement even for men who were much 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 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 three 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 the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper, and so did his little children. Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and weakness (13).? The paragraph goes on to describe this fear as deep and intimate, a fear that he would resemble his father. Okonkwo had developed a very short and violent temper that was immediately triggered in response to actions that he deemed to be weak or actions that questioned his authority.

Okonkwo despised and abhorred anything that was lazy, weak, or womanly like his father, and was often rather cruel to his oldest son, Nwoye, because he saw similarities in the two men. The second chapter of the novel begins with the town crier announcing a meeting in the morning. The meeting was called because a man of Umuofia's wife had been unjustly killed, and he wanted justice. It was decided that Okonkwo would go to the village where the accused lived and ask for one virgin and one young boy to make up for the death, or else war would be waged.

The villages of Umuofia were feared because of their great successes in battle. Okonkwo returns with a young virgin, who is given to the man whose wife was murdered, and he is asked to keep the young boy until the Oracle tells the elders what to do with him. The young boy's name is Ikemfuna, and he lives with Okonkwo's family for three years before the men of the village decide to call upon him. During the three years Ikemfuna becomes a part of Okonkwo's family, and Okonkwo grows quite fond of him. Okonkwo's oldest son, Nwoye, also becomes quite fond of Ikenfuma, and looks to him for a role model. This pleases Okonkwo, and he begins to lose the fear that his oldest son is like his father.

Prior to Ikemfuna's murder, locusts descend on the village, something that is usually a great thing for the Igbo?'s, but it is actually foreshadowing what is about to happen to Okonkwo's life.? Suddenly a shadow fell on the world? boundless sheets of black cloud drifting towards Umuofia? (55-56).? Okonkwo is warned by his friend Ogbuefi Eze udu not to take part in the killing of Ikemfuna, but he does take part in it. Okonkwo actually kills Ikemfuna because he is afraid the other men will think that he is weak. Later, Okonkwo's friend Obrierika tells him that what he had done will not please the earth, and then reprimands Okonkwo by saying? if the Oracle said that my son should be killed I would neither dispute it nor be the one to do it (67).?

Okonkwo is ill for a few days after the murder, and likewise, Nwoye is morning the loss of his friend and mentor. Nwoye has trouble understanding why twins are left in the Evil Forest to die, and he has trouble understanding why his father took part in killing Ikenfuma. The Igbo society, as well as most other African societies, was polytheistic. Every man had his own chi, or his won personal God to which he would pray to for health and prosperity.

The Oracle was much like the Soothsayers from ancient Rome. The Oracle was consulted by the men and women of Igbo, and was deciphered though the priestess. The Oracle was regarded with fear and respect, and its messages were taken quite seriously by the Igbos. They also that they were only the guardians of the land, the land actually belonged to their ancestors. This is the reason why Obrierika reprimands Okonkwo for taking part on Ikenfuma's death. Shortly after Ikenfuma's killing, the man who originally warned Okonkwo not to participate in his son's death dies.

This is a type of for warning that something bad is about to happen to Okonkwo and his family. Ikenfuma was like his son, and it displeased the earth and their ancestors that he did this. Twins were left in the forest to die by their parents because they were not accepted in the Igbo culture, they were an offense to the earth, but Nwoye had trouble understanding this, as well as many other practices of the Igbos. The next major event occurs in chapter thirteen, where Okonkwo's gun misfires and he accidentally kills a young man during a wedding celebration. The only acceptable thing for Okonkwo to do is to flee to his mother's tribe, where he would be exiled for seven years. After Okonkwo and his family departed, the clansmen went and burned down his obi's and his compound.

Everything that Okonkwo had worked for had been destroyed. This is very symbolic. Although the death was accidental, Okonkwo had to make amends with the earth goddess and his clansmen by leaving. His friends burnt down his buildings because they had to reconcile with the earth goddess.

Okonkwo was exiled to live with his mother's family in a place called Mbanta. He and his family were taken in by his mother's brother, Uchendu. He is given a plot of land to cultivate and a place to build home for his family. Okonkwo is very prosperous in his mother's homeland, but he longs for the day that he can return to Umuofia and rebuild his compound and reputation. The African of western Nigeria had heard of the white man before, but they were only stories, none had ever seen one. Okonkwo heard of and saw the first white man while he was in exile in Mbanta.

He and his mother's clansmen learned of the white man's religion, and how he was trying to make them forget their ancestors and practice this new religion. The men of Mbanta, like the men of Umuofia, were not at all worried about the white man and his religion. They did not think that the white man's fortune would be lasting. They gave him and his missionaries permission to build their church in the evil forest. They had originally thought that the evil spirits in the forest would drive them out after a few days, but the white men actually prospered. They preached of equality, which appealed to the lower classes and outcasts of the Igbo society.

Their preaching also appealed to Nwoye, and he soon ran away from his family to join the Christians. This pained Okonkwo deeply, his oldest son, the one who was to inherit and continue his successes, had become weak and womanly. Okonkwo never mentioned Nwoye again, and Nwoye never mentioned his father again. At the end of seven years Okonkwo and his family happily and excitedly returned to Umuofia.

Okonkwo had great plans for regaining his titles and reputations. He had two daughters who were of age to be married, he planned on initiating his sons in the oz o society, and his friend Obrierika had been taking care of his fields for him. He was surprised to find that the white man had not been driven out of Umuofia, he had thought that his clansmen would not be womanly like his mother's clansmen, and that they would drive the white man out of their villages. But the Igbos were actually quite tolerant of the white man and his religion.

Mr. Brown, the head of the church, and Ak unna, an elder, would engage in discussions of theology, and while neither succeeded in converting the other, they helped each other understand the other's views. The white man had also brought a form of government with him, which Okonkwo and several of the other town leaders learned first hand. At an annual ceremony, a new convert name Enoch had unmasked one of the, an elder dressed as an ancestor. The Igbo's were furious, so several of their strongest men and the from all nine villages of Umoufia, including Okonkwo, went and burned down the church of the white men.

They were soon gathered and taken to see the Commissioner, where they were held until their village would pay their ransom of 250 cowries. The men were beaten and Okonkwo was filled with a rage. Later when messengers came to disperse a meeting, Okonkwo, knowing that his clansmen would do nothing to drive the white men away form their villages, killed a messenger. He then went home and committed suicide. Okonkwo is often 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 out of desperation. He had struggled his whole life to become a respected member 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 death 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 Primitive 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.