Okonkwo's Influence On Things Fall Apart

The novel by Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart portrays a very determined leader of the Umuofia clan named Okonkwo. He lives in a culture that seems to be changing in a fast-paced manner right before his eyes. An important and reoccurring theme that I had noticed within the book was the role of customs and traditions. While people outside of the country of Nigeria would not generally accept a few of the things they do, they are perfectly normal in their world. For example, the tradition in which the spirits of the dead must be subdued or when a child should be murdered may bring upon one too many consequences for some people. “Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and weakness … it
was not external but lay deep within himself. It was fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father” (13). As mentioned in the book he never in any way wanted to be compared to his father, Unoka. His father was someone who was seen publicly as a coward. Before he left the earth he left upon his son the many unsettled debts. Seeing as Okonkwo did not want to grow up and become just like his father, he continued his life and became a warrior, clansman, and family provider. He then has a twelve-year-old son named Nwoye who he finds out to be lazy; unlike one of his daughters, Ezinma, who is the only child of his who has won Okonkwo’s respect. Okonkwo secretly wishes to himself that she was a boy. To separate the comparison between Okonkwo and his father he has the reputation as a wrestler and a hard working harvester. He also earns more respect from his people and has gained wealth from it. Another success in his life was that he had three wives. There are many deaths that occur within this novel. And Okonkwo seems to have taken a turn when he has accidently killed Ezeudu’s son and when he adopts a boy as his own from another village. “Umuofia has decided to kill him. The Oracle of the Hillas and the Caves has pronounced it. They will take him outside Umuofia as is the custom, and kill him there. But I want you to have nothing to do with it. He calls you father. Do not bear a hand in his death” (57). Even with this given message Okonko ignores it and continues on with the celebration. He then regrets his decision of what he has done and the feeling of fear had been present once again. The death of Ikemefuma had also caused Okonkwo’s son, Nwoye, to feel forever alienated, who, towards the end of the book, denies his traditional values and converts to Christianity.
I can depict this as Nwoye’s own way of showing revenge to his very own father for taking the life of his adoptive brother. While the missionaries spread their message of God throughout this tribe, they seem to have a high influence on Nwoye thus successfully converting his traditional religion. With converting to Christianity, it seems to have grown onto Nwoye every day. A certain hymn that the missionaries mentioned about brothers living in “darkness and fear, ignorant of the love of God” touches him deeply. He also learns from the missionaries’ word what he had never known prior to now, that life being a Christian did not show that their fathers killed their adoptive sons. Knowing this, Nwoye immediately wanted to change sides of religion; he didn’t want to be on the same side of Oknonkwo. He knew that by changing sides would cause Oknonkwo to become furious and that’s exactly what Nwoye aimed to do. Because Nwoye knew that Oknonkwo had killed Ikemefuma he has now resented him and will never forgive him for what he has
done. There were some things that were considered to be cultural norms. Given the arbitrary that women of the Igobo culture were open for change they still had their share of responsibilities. Because of the influence that happened outside of their culture, things within the Igbo traditions seemed to have changed. An example of this would be the alteration of crop harvest. Seeing as they do not harvest their yams, “a man’s crop” (22), which was a symbol of “manliness… [and] great[ness] (33), the “coco-yams, beans and cassava” (22) had become increasingly important to the Ibo. In the traditional culture of Igobo, the men see yam as an important item to their lifestyle. The role in women trading with someone of another country gave them a small opportunity to work alongside with the men. This opening gave women a certain outlook on different types of jobs that are out there for them in their society and when they put themselves into it they can be just as powerful as the male dominance.
Okonko often shows to everyone in his village that he is not as weak as his father. This is the reason as to why I truly believe that he kills Ikefuma and not because of a little mishap in the original plan. He does not follow what the tradition says but he goes with what his stubborn instinct tells him. Though he is tough on everyone else in town about following the way of the elders, he seems to be somewhat of a hypocrite. He may listen to the order to kill, but he also ruins the Week of Peace. “…Okonkwo was not the man to stop beating somebody half-way through, not even for fear of a goddess” (30). He is more interested on his own conditions to changing rather than listen to anyone else. Living with the other Umofian’s seems to be very adaptable. They are happy to be compared to the people living around them. They like to understand what is going on around them by following the tradition and questioning things that they do not understand which Oknokwo has a hard time in doing.
While Umofia did not have King’s or Queens as the West had, they still managed to keep a steady lifestyle. This is what the invaders did not notice; the West insisted that they needed a leader; they needed someone with better authority to look out for them. Or so he thought. The White man used either flogging or hanging; which was a tough situation to look at with the Umofians. The reason for this is because of a lack of social interaction and understanding.