Things Fall Apart analysis by Chinua Achebe
Things Fall Apart
The book is written by Nigerian author, Chinua Achebe. The Commissioner seems ignorant of the Umuofia people and he shows little respect for their cultural traditions and their language (Guthrie, A. 2011). The final chapter ends on a tragic scenario where Okonkwo, a wealthy Igbo leader hangs himself in a tree and his life comes to an end. The reason behind his death was he would not accept to face justice in the criminal courts of the English men, where he would be humiliated after he killed a court messenger. As the English District commissioner of the courts arrives at the compound of Okonkwo, he is heavily escorted by armed men. He finds a group of men at the place, the men are reluctantly willing to show the district commissioner where Okonkwo is, after issuing threats to the men that they will be imprisoned should they not show where Okonkwo is, one man by the name Obierika agrees to show where he is. That is when Okonkwo is found to have committed suicide. It is then that Obierika asks the Commissioner to cut down the tree and handle the body of Okonkwo as it was against the customs of the Umuofians touch bodies of people who have committed suicide (Rhoads, D. A 1993). They believed it was evil and unclean. They would later perform rituals to cleanse the act of suicide as to not allow spirits of the dead haunt them.
Okonkwo is a very respected man and a strong individual of the Umuofia clan. He is a very strict and powerful individual though he is drawn to have a character of internal worry. He is a conservative man when it comes to adhering to the laws of the land. The hostile personality of Okonkwo leads him to his downfall. His bully nature affects his general character as he earns little respect from the community especially on how he handles women. Okonkwo was a polygamous family man with three wives. Though he is full of pride and never entertains feminist nature in him, he loves one of his daughters the most. He is a family provider, dependable by his family at large. He has ambitions to see his family grow big and be the most respected family in the entire Ibo community. Okonkwo through his conservative nature sees women as less important than men. He would blame women on the poor upbringing of his children just like how the community would perceive, for example, the woman Okpewho (Chrisman, L. 2003). He would, however, show some respect to few feminine characters such as Okoye who has strong leadership skills and prowess seen as important on matters spiritual powers on supernatural dwellings (Usongo, 2010). After killing a court messenger, Okonkwo knew very clearly that the British administration would be after him to face justice. Having known how hostile and harsh it would be, Okonkwo would accept to take his life through hanging rather than surrendering himself to the hands of the colonizers. He realized that through the murder of the messenger, he lost grip and touch of the social customs and beliefs. The community of Umuofia eventually lost a leader through an act of suicide. This made the community elders accuse the harsh colonial administration as being responsible for the death of their leader. The administration would hear none of their cries, the story ends tragically symbolizing the end of Umuofia clan.