A Tragic Hero Ruled by his fears

books:

	• Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe Demco Media, 1994 - 209 pages average customer review:based on 534 reviews
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highly recommended

Things Fall Apart

I so enjoyed this book. It gave me great insight into African culture. It shows how people's belief systems are such, that if a culture is completely unlike our own, we feel that we must change it. This book creates a dramatic example of causing more harm than good when missionaries work to change a civilization. If my son had not been required to read this book in high school, I never would have found it, and what a loss that would have been.

Tradition can change?

_Things Fall Apart_ by Chinua Achebe takes place in tribal Africa. It is focused in on a warior named Onkonkwo. He is a well respected man with many honorable titles, but he has inevitable problems feeding his three wives and children, teaching his sons to be men, and harvesting the valuable crops. One day, news comes of white men that came on horses. These men come to Onkonkwo's village and establish a church. Onkonkwo feels great hate for these white men. They come in curse the village's god, and begin to convert the tribe members to Christianity. How can Onkonkwo deal with this? There is a dramatic and realistic ending. This book is written in a clear and descriptivwe writing style that adds to the over all suspense. This book is great

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Favorite Book

The description of the culture is extremely well done...The reader gets attached to the village, its people and the way of life that it is heartbreaking when the Europeans come in and the cultures clash. A must read.

Brilliant.

This book is a terrific and depressingly truthful textual depiction of the utter destruction of much African culture upon the arrival of European Christian "saviors". The loss of such unique and awesome culture in Africa should be saddening to everyone, and this book should make the reader reexamine the stupidity and ridiculousness of the barbaric European invasion and "civilization" of an already more civilized continent.

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A Tragic Hero Ruled by his fears

On the surface this book deals with changes to a traditional society when exposed to outsiders, however there are deeper themes woven into this fabric. Okonkwo is the tragic hero or anti-hero of this novel. He is a man ruled by his fears, especially the fear of looking weak or effeminate. In response he rules his family with an iron hand, is violent and inpetuous. Even before the colonizers appeared, Okonkwo had already violated the mores of his community several times, sinning against the earth goddess by beating his wife during Peace week, shedding innocent blood with the slaying of Ikemefuna, who had become somewhat of a foster son, and brother figure to Nwoye, Okonkwo's son whom he views as effeminate and weak. When Okonkwo tragically commits manslaughter, he and his family are forced into exile. He loses his prominent place in the clan and has to go to his mother's village for seven years. While there, he fumes about his lost social position and vows to regain it as a true warrior when he returns to his village.

Meanwhile, Okonkwo disdains his eldest son Nwoye who undergoes many beatings and punishments for not meeting up to his father's rigourous standards on manhood. Nwoye is a gentle soul and was very attached to Ikemefuna, a captive from another tribe who is entrusted to Okonkwo. When the Christian missionaries arrived, Nwoye is drawn to them, especially because they appeal to the weak, downtrodden, despised and oppressed. In the Christian community, all are brothers and sisters in Christ, with no regard to rank, clan, caste. Many titleless outcasts, or worthless men and women were drawn to the missionaries and accepted. Of course this made Okonkwo despise them even more, as a womanly clan, and he is extremely displeased upon finding out the Nwoye has converted to Christianity, choking him in the neck until Nwoye's uncle intervenes.

Okonkwo vows to get revenge on the Christians and waits for an opportunity to prove himself as a strong warrior again. Tragically for everyone involved, the church is burned down, after one of the zealous converts unmasks an egwugwu (a man portraying an ancestral spirit) during a ceremony. Now Okonkwo has an opportunity, and puts on his warrior's dress when the messengers come from the court. Unfortunately for Okonkwo he acts impulsively and slays the first messenger. Knowing there is no way out, he hangs himself and again commits sin against the traditional Igbo earth goddess. So even though Okonkwo is fighting against outside influences and trying to preserve his way of life, he constantly transgresses the boundaries of behavior as defined by his own cultural traditional.

The only hope that is offered in this sad story is that Nwoye eventually converts all his brothers and sisters and Okonkwo's widows. This was mentioned parenthetically in the chapter dealing with Nwoye's conversion. After Okonkwo's death by ultimate sin, the family must have fallen to a very low status, or become outcasts, the very worthless men and women that Okonkwo looked down on. Ironically, Okonkwo's acts caused his remaining family to gain great hope and promise, no doubt under the gentle loving leadership of Nwoye, the son he never appreciated.

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reviews: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, page 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20

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