Things Fall Apart is a realistic fiction written by acclaimed author and critic Chinua Achebe. It takes place in the fictional Igbo village of Umuofia in the early 1900s and follows an adult Okonkwo, a 38-year-old man from the village looking to escape the legacy of his father, Unoka, who lived frivolously and without resources or valuable material possessions. Throughout the story, the stereotypical and realistic dynamics of Igbo villages coalesced with Western culture are depicted equitably. Okonkwo, after returning to Umuofia from banishment is averse to the change and combats it. Ultimately, he is unsuccessful in overcoming Western powers, and the story concludes when Okonkwo is found hanging from a tree, having killed himself, and ends with a satirical, nearly comical remark.
The psychology of Okonkwo is directly propagated to display how metrics of change can dilute traditional value, as shown how the Christian missionaries manage to overtake the Umuofia and the other villages’ intrinsic virtues. This frames a pertinent conceptual argument surrounding the complexity of Okonkwo’s character, which is that Okonkwo is a product of fostered fear, but is incapable of escaping the inevitable.
Though Unoka was not present during the time that the novel took place (he had died ten years ago), he plays a large role in influencing Okonkwo’s thoughts and personality. Unoka was a lazy man when raising Okonkwo, and was the source of his father’s shame. Due to his hemophobia, he never received distinction or honours in any facet of Umoufian culture, and his passion for the arts only degraded his reputation and branded him as an effeminate nuisance. He is described in the book as “a debtor, and he owed every neighbour some money, from a few cowries to quite substantial amounts”, seeing as he lacked the resources to care for his one wife and children. Due to Unoka’s lack of a title and little respect within the village, Okonkwo began to hate his father and associate all of his activities (creativity, art, music, etc.) with failure. This forges Okonkwo’s distorted recognition of masculinity being virility. This conceptualisation began to skew Okonkwo’s moral compass and became the impetus for characteristics that he exhibits throughout the book. Okonkwo’s fear of continuing his father’s legacy not only leads him to work hard – a positive – but also gives him a jaded impression of kindness – a negative. This is explored in his dynamic relationships, especially with his daughter, Ezinma, and his son, Nwoye. The psychological effects imprinted by Okonkwo can be observed where the omniscient narrator says, “perhaps down in his heart[,] Okonkwo was not a cruel man”, and subsequently states, “Okonkwo’s fear was greater than these. It was not external but lay deep within himself. It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father”. Every step Okonkwo takes to appear wealthy or masculine, whether that be fighting in wars, wrestling, farming yams, or having multiple wives, is a coping method that convinces Okonkwo that he is nothing like his father, and uses the affirmation of others to confirm the identity he’s crafted. The narrator proposes the idea that Okonkowo could be emotional or kind, which suggests that his actions aren’t natural, but practised in fear of turning out like his father. It could even be said that Okonkwo only adheres to Umoufian tradition, such as with the earth goddess and religious practices, as a means of assimilating into his environment in a way that holds him to the highest standard. This can be inferred from the fact that it was stated by the narrator, “but [Okonkwo’s] whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and weakness. It was deeper and more intimate than the fear of evil and capricious gods and of magic, the fear of the forest, and the forces of nature, malevolent, red in tooth and claw”. This passage states that supplementary to his internal fears, Okonkwo was shown to deviate from religious practices, as shown when he beat and nearly shot his youngest wife, Ojiugo – all because of uncooked rice – on the sacred Feast of New Yam, as to preserve his Unoka-counteractive and phobia driven demeanour of harshness, brutality, and demands of respect. Though he may fear the Umuofian Gods, his religious stronghold is easily dismantled when his fear takes precedence. The passage in the book that says he would not ever complete a beating, “not even for fear of a goddess”, explicitly highlights that. All of this relates to an infectious, nearly obsessive anxiety of becoming like Unoka that Okonkwo proceeds to spread to no avail. Instead of being able to detach himself and his family from Unoka’s legacy, he inadvertently continues it, as demonstrated with how his upbringing leads to the ultimate preservation of the lazy culture Okonkwo was brought up with and the emergence of Okonkwo’s similarities to his father. Within the book, not only is Okonkwo shown being afraid of himself exhibiting his father’s traits but anyone around him, including his children. This is shown with his son, Nwoye, who seeks his approval due to being constantly reprimanded for his laziness. However, Okonkwo’s anathema is not his father, but himself, or his inner self, which was created as a byproduct of Unoka’s poverty. Okonkwo has developed a duality that coalesces his fear with his other emotions, causing a sort of spill that is evident within his killings, which will later be discussed. This draws back to the proposition of Okonkwo as a child born of fear, as he continues to disallow anything to harm his present, but is unable to escape the prospect of the future.
Nevertheless, it is to be appreciated that Achebe manages to blur the perspective of Okonkwo as a tragic hero or Unoka as an unsuspecting villain, as neither result is intended, but rather events that have occurred due to the entropy of humanity. This describes a disorder in which a fully conscious decision (Unoka being lazy and titleless) that impacts an isolated system (Okonkwo) and causes a sporadic shift in mindset (Okonkwo hating Unoka), which turns Okonkwo into a fear monger that evokes fear in others through his own; a phenomenon that creates an extremely paradoxical event that will be referred to as a phobos-loop.
The analytic concept of Okonkwo being a spawn of fear has been proposed by multiple scholars, including Nigerian author, Simon Iyasere, who argues this position using the killing of Ikemefuna as a focal point. In his writing Okonkwo’s Participation in the Killing of his “Son” in Chinua Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart’: A Study of Ignoble Decisiveness, Iyasere illustrates the instance at which Okonkwo decapitates Ikemefuna by deconstructing Okonkwo’s impulsive action. Despite Okonkwo’s freedom to control himself and even advise against violent action, Okonkwo is not able to think about the consequences and strives only to preserve his pride. Iysere says, “Okonkwo was informed of the intended execution by Oguefi Ezeudu two full days before the execution was carried out; if Okonkwo had been a man of thought and not of blind action, he would have reflected the moral consequences of his activities during those two days. To demonstrate his eagerness to participate in the action, ‘Okonkwo got ready quickly [when] the party set out with Ikemefuna carrying a pot of wine’ ”. In this passage, Iyasere describes Okonkwo’s adherence to the determination that he would be nothing like his father and his fear of appearing weak. When Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna, Achebe sets the scene spontaneously: “He heard Ikemefuna cry, ‘My father, they have killed me!’ as he ran towards him. Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down.” Though Okonkwo was dazed, it was not because he was confused and decided at that moment to murder Ikemefuna, but because he was at the point in which he had planned to kill. Killing Ikemefuna was to rid his psyche of the thought that he had become tethered to Ikemefuna. This falls back to integral semantics used inside of this moment where it says, “dazed with fear”, not “surprised and confused” or “in a fit of rage”, but rather a premeditated action in which Okonkwo may have questioned his motives. This infinitesimal period in which Okonkwo hesitates suggests a larger play at hand, once again reinforcing the theme of an inevitable fear exemplified throughout Things Fall Apart. This larger play is the idea that Okonkwo stops, just for a moment. This evanescent point of view gives an intermittent juxtaposition between Okonkwo’s buried thoughts and his own beliefs. This brings about a new psychological construct: ambivalence. Though superficially, Okonkwo seems steadfast in his so-called masculinity, he still retains perpetually remigrating insecurity that fuels his fear. This forms an eternal battle that is witnessed each time he kills, even on accident, there is an apparent hesitation that affects him at a steady interval, which eventually leads to the conclusion of suicide, after murdering the messenger. Though his actions may seem spur-of-the-moment, they are activities festered by unfortunate circumstances and a negative imprint on his psyche from a young age. In essence, Okonkwo does the same to Nwoye by killing Ikemefuna, Nwoye’s then-brother, and reason for his newfound masculinity, he causes Nwoye to hate his father, continue in laziness, become soft, and hate the Igbo culture. Except for the effects of the last three inferences made being the inverse, the phobos-loop instantiated by Unoka continues.
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