Things Fall Apart — the Tragedy of an Individual or the Tragedy of a Society?
This was written as an ungraded timed essay with a limit of 45 minutes.
Everyone who has read Achebe’s masterpiece about the tragic end of the Ibo clans understands that it tells about the fall of a society — however, I see the work from a different point of view.
Umuofia and its neighbouring villages were indeed brutally forced to Christianity. For example, Abame was wiped out in a matter of minutes (p. 102) and the elders of Umuofia were imprisoned and mutilated (p. 141). Despite this, I would say that Achebe uses the demise of the Ibo as a tool to further the suffering that Okonkwo has to endure, only to meed his tragic end.
Okonkwo lived a hard life, with his constant fear — throughout the book portrayed as bravery — keeping him alive. He was bornt into a lazy man’s family, and so learnt to hade idleness in all of its forms (best shown on p. 10). Thus he worked, without being exhausted, almost all of his life. His efforts paid off, but did he really have any use of it?
Wit hhis mind set on one goal — taking the highest rank of the clan — Okonkwo loathed sloth and expected to see his own zeal in others, too. This lead to great disappointment when his son, Nwoye, revealed that he was a “wimp”, preferred feminime stories and ultimately joined the Christian missionaries (p. 112). One might argue that it is Nwoye’s own choice and that Okonkwo must accept it. However, this is exactly what Okonkwo’s perpetual suffering is based on — he persuades himself that he must succeed, after which he cannot let go of this paradigm.
Okonkwo bases his values on those of his clan, and thus respects it as an entity. The clan stands for strength, abandoning the weak, and respecting the gods and traditions. Because of this, he panics when he sees the path that his clan is treading.
When Umuofia — the foundation of Okonkwo’s philosophy — fails to live up to his expectations, he has nowhere else to turn. Okonkwo gives his fellow people one last chance to prove themselves unchanged, but they do not take it. Thus, Okonkwo takes the only path left and ends his life of suffering.
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