Regarding Like Water For Chocolate

Angela Zheng
Mr. Ramsay
English 10
January 17th, 2014
Charging Head First into the Fire
No one can change the inevitable. Yet how one adjusts to change is what defines whether the passage of time brings “fortune” or “misfortune” to an individual. When such changes lead to drastic alteration to one’s circumstances, it is commonly referred to as fate, or the will of some higher being. Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart implies how a single man’s resolve led to both his triumph and fall due to an inability to change, adapt or compromise. Okonkwo’s dedication to his way of life brought him to his wealth at the exposition of the novel, but also his suicide at the resolution.
A firm belief in his way of life forced Okonkwo into his success at the beginning of Things Fall Apart. As it is noted in chapters one to three, Okonkwo’s birth had left him much to be desired. “Okonkwo did not have the start in life which many young men usually had (Achebe 16).” Indeed, with a father like Unoka, a “lazy and improvident” man, it is hard to imagine how Okonkwo left his circumstances when his father was one that “was poor” and left “his (Unoka’s) wife and children had barely enough to eat” (Achebe 04 & Achebe 05). Yet these experiences forced Okonkwo toughen up early in life. Okonkwo’s “whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness” (Achebe 13). After considering how Okonkwo’s spent his entire childhood under the shameful shadow of his father, it makes sense that “even now he still remembered how he had suffered when a playmate had told him that his father was agbala” (Achebe 13). Rather than being crushed by his father’s legacy, Okonkwo followed a single “passion - to hate everything that his father Unoka had loved” (Achebe 13). Thus, Okonkwo gained the desire and mindset to maintain the rendition of an ideal successful Igbo man. Even though “It was slow and painful…he threw himself into it like one possessed.” (Achebe 18). Through the motivation of fear, Okonkwo became one of the top figures of all of Umuofia.
Yet this same adherence to fear, the same belief that led to Okonkwo’s success led to his humiliating death in the end of the novel. Right before Ikemefuna’s death in chapter seven, Ezuedu, the “oldest man in…Umuofia…(who) now accorded great respect in all the clan” warned Okonkwo to stay away from the sacrificial ritual (Achebe 57). Naturally, knowing the context of this event, and being the boy’s surrogate father, Okonkwo could have stated every reason about why he could stay away from the event. But he did not, even though he genuinely cared about Ikemefuna. As Obireika stated, “…if the Oracle said that my son should be killed I would neither dispute it nor be the one to do it”, which is a perfectly valid and rational point, and an idea that was proposed to Okonkwo by Ezuedu as well; but since Okonkwo rejected this offer, Achebe implies that attending said event held a greater purpose to Okonkwo (Achebe 67). Going by textual evidence, the most likely reason would be, like before, Okonkwo’s excessive fear of his father’s shadow over him. And indeed, right after cutting Ikemefuna down, Okonkwo stated, “He was afraid of being thought weak” (Achebe 61). Following his train of thought, one might be inclined to interpret this fear as an more paranoiac sensitivity towards the light banter on page 58 about “some effeminate men who had refused to come with them”. Either way, Okonkwo’s fear led to his slaying of his own son. Looking back at the locust swarm right before Ikemefuna’s death and Okonkwo’s gradual decline in luck, even the staunchest realist would feel unsettled by the timing of all of these events. From one point of view, it could be said that the locusts were foreshadowing upcoming disaster, and that Okonkwo’s sacrilegious murder of Ikemefuna brought supernatural intervention upon him, a sort of vengeful fate that haunted Okonkwo until his death. But if viewed from an different angle, it could be said that the first two incidents, the locusts and Ikemefuna’s death were completely unrelated, while the murder of Ikemefuna destabilized Okonkwo’s mind, a mind which held on to its motivation by fear but lost the flexibility to doubt or observe any other trains of thought; gradually leading to increasing tensions with his changing environment, finally accumulating to Okonkwo’s suicide. No matter which way was the author’s intention, in the end, the fear that handed Okonkwo his success certainly played a significant role in his downfall.
When one’s conviction does not get clouded by the agitation of emotions, success can be found; however, when a strong will becomes blind to its surroundings, imminent conflict with the environment will appear under the guise of “fate” and “destiny” to the spurned and eventually lead to ruin.