Essay on the Downfall of Okonkwo in Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart

The Downfall of Okonkwo in Things pass by Apart   Chinua Achebes novel, Things Fall Apart, uses the changes in African tribal culture brought about by European small town to illustrate the evolution of the character Okonkwo. As Okonkwo leads his life, his experiences, personality and thought atomic number 18 revealed to the reader. The obstacles he faces in life are made numerous as time progresses. Okonkwos most significant challenge originates within himself. He a equal encounters problems not only when in opposition to the white culture, but in his own culture, as he becomes frustrated with tribal ideals that conflict with his own. The brave adversary he encounters is of the physical world, brought upon himself by his emotional and heathenish problems. The air through which Okonkwo addresses his adversaries in Things Fall Apart creates the mechanism that leads to his eventual destruction.   The superior opponent in life is the one that is created inside the mind. As Okonkwo grows up, he decides to be the absolute antipodes of his father Unoka. Okonkwo perceives his father as a apogee of the weaknesses in man. In this erroneous view, Okonkwo buries his feelings deep within himself. When these emotions emerge, he views them as a sign of weakness. When Okonkwo participates in Ikemefunas killing, he is deeply affected as he has ended the life of one who he grew to love as a son. Okonkwo is excessively depressed after the slaying, not tasting all food for two days. (61) As he notices his confusion, he calls himself weak like a shivering old woman. In his emotionless show of military posture after Ikemefunas death, Okonkwo actually proves his frailty by hiding what he feels. Okonkwo is prevail by his private fear of appeari... ...clansmen come to decide what they should do, Okonkwo has already chosen war. As the messenger arrives to order an end to the meeting, Okonkwo is once again compulsive by his rage and kills the messenger. He realiz es that the others were not prepared to fight, and he comes to recognise the consequences of his actions. Instead of being executed, Okonkwo decides to take his own life.   Okonkwo takes his life as he sees himself a lone warrior in a society of weaklings. This isolation is rattling imposed by his decision of how to handle the conflicts which he encounters. His unitary channeling of emotions, cultural inflexibility, and tendency to seek physical confrontation are compiled into a one notion. The idealized vision of a warrior by which Okonkwo lives is the instrument that leads to the climax of Achebes novel, Things Fall Apart Okonkwos demise.