Essay On Okonkwo's Sense Of Identity In Things Fall Apart

In the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo and his sense of identity that he is a very emotionless person, who bottles everything up inside, influences a very negative response to the cultural collision, and through that response contributes to the author´s purpose. The main character Okonkwo, is a very broken, angry man who is portrayed as ¨strong¨ lives in the Ibo village of Umuofia, faces a cultural collision when the European Christian missionaries infiltrate the Ibo villages very aggressively, we see how strong he really is when he is faced with cultural change. One distinct characteristic that shapes Okonkwo´s sense of identity is that he shows no signs of weakness or emotion, and just bottles everything up, resulting in him handling situations very poorly. For example, in chapter 4, referring to
The messenger crouched to avoid the blow. It was useless. Okonkwo’s machete descended twice and the man’s head lay beside his uniformed body” (204). Also, “Then they came to the tree from which Okonkwo’s body was dangling and they stopped dead” (207). All of the examples of Okonkwo being aggressive, or keeping his emotions in, lead to this brutal attack on an innocent man, and then the suicide of Okonkwo. Okonkwo's reaction to the cultural collision ties back to the purpose of the author writing this book, which is he wanted everyone to see a fair portrayal of Africa, these men came and were brutally killed by Okonkwo, so the missionaries assume that is what all of their culture is like, when in reality it was just one broken man that represented an unfair, ¨savage-like¨, portrayal of Africa. Yet, Okonkwo also showed the missionaries that all of the Ibo people were all humans too, he had emotions and the tragedy of him killing himself set them back and they can see that they aren't as savage as they were portrayed to