Okonkwo's Death In Things Fall Apart

In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, there are unceasing tragic events that lead up to the death of the main character, Okonkwo. Throughout the novel, Okonkwo seems to be ‘falling apart’ as events intensify. At first, it was just his fear of becoming an ‘agbala’ like his father, and then it escalated on to killing his adopted son, Ikemefuna, to his exile to Mbanta, the arrival of the Christians and the white men, and ending with his devastating death. The question is, was Okonkwo’s death to no avail? According to the events following the murder of the court messenger, Okonkwo did die in vain. The way the Umofians reacted after the murder, and how the situation turned out to be, clearly show that his death was unsuccessful and worthless. After Okonkwo murdered the court messenger, the Umofians reacted a completely different way than he thought they would. At the end of Chapter 24, Okonkwo explains his attempt
It actually did the contrary. The murder might have brought up some conflict, but it didn’t. His suicide on the other hand, influenced the wrong side. When the District Commissioner is taken to see Okonkwo’s cold, dead body hanging from a tree, Obierika describes Okonkwo as “one of the greatest men in Umuofia” (191). White men, though, saw him as another uncivilized and cultureless savage that could easily become just another story for their “Pacification of the Primitive” (191). Okonkwo’s suicide was just a reason for the Commissioner to take Obierika and the kinsmen to court, and to eventually have them accept their subordination. Even though Okonkwo’s purpose was to be greater than the white men and to not have to go through change, the white men still take over, are still interested in civilizing them, and change still happens. His death didn’t change the thoughts of his friends of him and it certainly didn’t change the minds of the white people of colonizing