Exile in Suicide

In the book: "Things Fall Apart" the author Chinua Achebe presents the ultimate downfall of the Ibo tribe as they are forced into the 'white world.' One of the main characters Okonkwo, a devout presence in society, feared by many due to the fact that he cruelly beat his wives. In the core of Okonkwo's being is a sincere and dreadful form of exile that exposes itself the moment he decided to commit suicide.

Throughout the novel the reader was given many different descriptions of gods and ceremonies engendering the sacredness of this tribe. Their beliefs and holy commitment definitely infiltrated itself on every day life, even when their tribe was slowly heading toward extinction. Okonkwo, a brute was affected greatly by this change the Ibo tribe faced...rather than having to succumb to customs not of his own he hung himself, ultimately exiling himself from his Ibo tribe. Suicide is highly condemned, and a refusal of burial is enforced to those who commit the ultimate sin. A painful moment in the book would be toward the end when members of the tribe ask the 'white men' to bury Okonkwo for they cannot, it is against their beliefs. The reader is able to see the connection between these tribal members, and even though Okonkwo went against the tribal rules they still wanted him buried.

Things Fall Apart

Things fall Apart:
Perhaps the most interesting thing about "Things Fall Apart" is Achebe's character: Okonkwo and Hemingway's Cohn. Both authors start off describing these characters strongest points and how thoses pionts make them week, both of them want to be liked or excepted but fail. Okonkwo does this by making it his personal goal not to display any of the qualities that were like his fathers. Because of this he was a rich man with several wives and was well know throughout all the villages. Cohn was admired for his ability to stay calm and not fight although he was a boxer, the same way in which Okonkwo was admired for his display "manliness". Unfortunately, Cohn snapped one day by beating up the bull fighter and that display of anger became his down fall, the same way in which Okonkwo's need to be ultra manly leads to his distruction at the end of the novel.

Achebe's Exile

I have read this novel before and remember being struck by the same question: how personal is this story? Does any one character in the novel represent Achebe? I do not know for sure but if I were to guess I would think that it is Nwoye. Nwoye leaves his family and all things familiar in search of something new. This seems similar to Achebe's writing of the novel and exile from Nigeria. Achebe clearly has very mixed feelings about tribal life and very strong feelings about the colonization of Nigeria. Perhaps however, he is not a character in the novel but rather in the novel itself.

Language in "Things Fall Apart"

This novel reminded me of the Analzuda passage we read, where the author wrote in both English and Spanish as a representation of her mixed cultures. Achebe does the same in "Things Fall Apart". I found myself skipping over some of the words and names of the African dialect because they were so difficult. By keeping certain words in the Igbo language, he shows that they are too complex to be translated. It gave the novel a real effect to me, even though I had to use "context clues" to figure out what was being said.

Nwoye's exile

Long before Okonkwo is forced to take his family into exile to atone, there is a complex parallel of exile to be seen with his true son, Nwoye. Okonkwo finds Nwoye to be lazy and isn't very proud of his son. He harbors this attitude because he is afraid Nwoye could end up like his father, Unoka. He is more or less ashamed of Unoka's behavior while he was alive, especially his cowardly actions and his struggles with owing money. Since Okonkwo makes the comparison from Nwoye to his father, he ultimately seems to reject him and leave him isolated and lonely. When Okonkwo takes charge of Ikemefuna, he seems to look at him as an ideal son. Nwoye forms a bond with Ikemefuna as well, but his own father Okonkwo never seems to embrace his real son. He is happy with the notion of Nwoye developing a more masculine character, which largely comes about because of Ikemefuna's influence. Ikemefuna, in many ways, is not only an "older brother" to Nwoye, but a father figure as well. Okonkow's neglect for his son may reveal a lot about how his own father treated him. Nwoye cries when he finds out Ikemefuna is leaving, and eventually realizes that he is dead. He has, in a sense, been exiled from his father, and has instead taken comfort in his relationship with Ikemefuna. Once Ikemefuna is also taken from him, he is being further driven away from filial ties.

Some Things Never Change

After reading the novel entitled Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, I realized that some things never change especially the domination of women by a male figure. The protagonist, Okonkwo strives to be the epitomy of masculinity by being really ignorant and selfish in my opinion. We learn that their are many influences in his life that make him act the way he acts, but his opinions seems to be misguided, and chavinistic. His relationship with his father caused his violent behavior because many a times he was not able to put food on the table for Okonkwo, and siblings. Okonkwo saw this as being weak and feminine. What!?! This reason is just unbelievable, and unacceptable. Give a woman a chance, and you'll see she would definitely have something on the table at the end of the day. Then the narrator goes further by saying that a man who has not taken any of the expensive, prestige-indicating title is called a agbala, which means woman. Honestly, this inferiority of woman is driving me nuts, thank God I'm not living in this clan, and I am in a society where Kimora Lee is the owner of the huge BabyPhat business empire, and Hilary Clinton, a woman maybe the next President. In addition, Okonkwo associated masculinty with being abusive to his wives, and children, and often blocks off his sentiments. In my opinion, look at Tom Cruise, he professed his love for Katie Holmes on national television by jumping on the sofa on Oprah's talk show, and this didn't make him less of a man. And luckily there wasn't any child care services back then because Oknokwo,"the big MAN on campus" would have been in a lot of legal troubles for assaulting his kids. Above all, this just goes to show that Okonkwo has a notion that men are stronger than women, which in my opinion (pisses me off), really irritates me.

Falling Apart of Government

Some parts of this story relates to “The Lottery,” because the fact that in both stories, a person is sacrificed for the sake of the people. In this Things Fall Apart, two people were sacrificed, which were a virgin to become a future wife, and a boy that was later killed. This was to prevent a war from creating. This novel also changed the perception I had of Africa, in that I never imagined Nigeria had a Democratic government in that the town decided what to do in certain situations, like whether to decide to go to war or not. After reading such books like Heart of Darkness, one would have the perception of Africa as a savage area, most notably in the late 1800s.
During the story, I noticed that Okonkwo was a very aggressive person, probably because he wanted to be taken seriously and not be like his father Unoka. Because of his aggression, this may have led him to his demise because he killed the court messenger boy.

The Exile of "Destruction"

As I first started reading Things Fall Apart by, Chinua Achebe I was honestly astonished and a bit in shock of the traditional customs and practices of the clan, but as the story and the great fall started to develop, I felt not only sympathetic towards Okonkwo (I didn't really like his character at the beginning), but perhaps as angry and frustrated as he felt. I could not understand how people did not see what Okonkwo pointed out to them, and the fact that they were erasing an entire culture and exiling themselves from what they had known throughout their entire life. Furthermore, I realize that this too was a culture that had rules, norms and hierarchies, and most important a logical system of life. The part that made this point the most obvious to me was:
"You carve a piece of wood[...] and you call it a god. [...] It is indeed a piece of wood. The tree from which it came was made by Chukwu, as indeed all minor gods were. But He made them for His messengers so the we could approach Him through them. (Achebe 179).

One can derive that this book shows a clear aspect of exile, an exile that seems harsh and almost unbelievable, an exile that is human made and is the result of the destruction of a culture. It feels as if the protagonist's end is perhaps his last resource to preserve what he knew (his ideal tribe), before he is destructed or "converted" and gives in to deleting all his traditions, beliefs and memories. Furthermore, the fact that the Great Fall is so realistic and still happening (Iraqi War) makes the Fall a lot more difficult and rough on the reader.