Things Fall Apart

Things Fall Apart

That year the harvest was sad, like a funeral, and many farmers wept as they dug up the miserable and rotting yams. One man tied his cloth to a tree branch and hanged himself. Okonkwo remembered that tragic year with a cold shiver throughout the rest of his life. It always surprised him when he thought of it later that he did not sink under the load of despair. He knew that he was a fierce fighter, but that year had been enough to break the heart of a lion.

"Since I survived that year," he always said, "I shall survive anything." He put it down to his inflexible will. His father, Unoka, who was then an ailing man, had said to him during that terrible harvest month: "Do not despair. I know that you will not despair. You have a manly and a proud heart. A proud heart can survive a general failure because such a failure does not prick its pride. It is more difficult and more bitter when a man fails alone."

The above passages were taken from the end of chapter three, part one. After finishing reading this book and then going back through it, I found these passages very ironic in regards to how the story eventually ended. Okonkwo believed that because he was such a fierce fighter, he could conquer anything life threw at him. However, it was his fierce, proud, fighting attitude that was his demise in the face of uncontrollable circumstances in the end. Okonkwo believed that war and brute fighting would fix everything. He was a proud and stubborn man constantly struggling to improve his standing in the tribal community. Okonkwo also had intense pride for his tribe and way of life. He believed it was the right way of life and not to be questioned. Everyone was supposed to fear war with Umofia due to their fierce warriors and greatness in battle. When the white men not only did not fear them, but openly threatened the tribal way of life, Okonkwo prepared to handle the situation the only way he knew how. He wanted to got to war against the new white invaders, chasing them from tribal lands and ending the threat of different ways of life.

The passage ends with, "it is more difficult and more bitter when a man fails alone." I believe this is exactly what was the final blow to Okonkwo that pushed him into taking his own life. Okonkwo attempted to provoke a war with the white men both when he spoke up in the tribal meetings and then when he lashed out and killed a messenger of the white men. Okonkwo did this thinking the other tribal men would be behind him. He believed the act would lead to the war with the white men he had been hungering for. But after killing the messenger, Okonkwo immediately knew that he would be alone in his fight. The end of chapter twenty four reads, "In a flash Okonkwo drew his machete. 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. The waiting backcloth jumped into tumultuous life and the meeting was stopped. Okonkwo stood looking at the dead man. He knew that Umofia would not go to war. He knew because they had let the other messengers escape. They had broken into tumult instead of action. He discerned fright in that tumult. He heard voices asking: 'Why did he do it?' He wiped his machete and went away."

Okonkwo was fully prepared for all out war. But this was as a warrior for Umofia with all the other warriors of Umofia. It is more difficult and more bitter when a man fails alone. When Okonkwo finally knew that he was indeed alone in his wish for war and in his idea of Umofia still a powerful place, it was the final crushing blow for a once proud man and warrior.

Throughout the story, you came to believe that Okonkwo could indeed survive any hardship he encountered in his life. He had overcame his meager beginnings, the reputation of his lazy father, the one extremely harsh harvest, having to kill the young boy who called him father, the constant worry of losing Ezinma, being exiled from Umofia for the accidental killing of the young boy, and then having his own son leave home and convert to the white man's religion and way of life. Despite all these trials and tribulations, Okonkwo was buoyed by his intense pride and the intense pride he had for Umofia and the tribal way of life. This was what Okonkwo clung to as the steadying force in his life. It was when he finally became aware that the way of life he so cherished was gone, that he gave up and took his own life.

The very fact that Okonkwo took his own life underlines the loss of faith and hope Okonkwo had arrived at. The end of the book explains that it is an abomination for a man to take his own life. It is an offense