Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
is a book that transformed Nigeria’s literary movement in the 1900s. There was
always a preconceived idea by the Western world that Africa was a place where
people did not speak a language with complex words and grammar. We can see that
Achebe wrote this novel partly to prove westerners that the image of Africa
they had in their minds before is completely different to what Africa really is
and has to offer. Although the novel strives to portray an opposite image of
Africa, it doesn’t necessarily mean that Africa acquires only positive aspects
in culture. Throughout the novel, there is struggle seen between family members
due to various reasons but mainly the due to the expectations that a father
sets for both himself and his family. In this blog I will choose to focus on
the first part of the novel where Okonkwo is building up the social order of
the tribe.
The novel is based in Nigeria and
gives an insight to readers of the lifestyle of tribe men and women. A key
aspect that is shown through Okonkwo is that of masculinity and manliness.
Okonkwo is a well-respected and very popular warrior of the tribe. He feels the
need to be better than his father who he saw as weak. It is as if he always has
to have his guard up in order to be prepared for whatever situation. His idea
of manliness, though, is through violence and anger and can be seen when he
interacts with his eldest son Nwoye. As the eldest child, Okonkwo has high
expectation of Nwoye but he was to be disappointed as his son had traits like
his late father, whom he disapproved of. The social norm of the tribes in
Nigeria then was your worth could only be created through your actions; hence Okonkwo’s
want for Nwoye to not act lazy. From one perspective, this is understandable
because one should not rely on other for their own wellbeing. However, from
another, the strict cultural traditions and social norms create a barrier for
those within the community to act a particular way. Nwoye naturally doesn’t
apply to this ‘social norm’ that Okonkwo has set and so he finds it difficult
to please his father. With the help of Ikemefuna, Nwoye begins to see that
being disapproving towards women, makes his father more fond of him. Although he
may be pleasing his father, Nwoye is actually deviating away from his true
self.
Okonkwo’s worst fear is weakness.
He would not allow his emotions to show through himself to others and cannot
stand when he starts to feel affection to others even his family. For example,
when he comes to realize his fondness of Ikemefuna. It is similar to the idea
above of having to act a particular way. Okonkwo has set such harsh
restrictions on his actions that even feeling affectionate towards someone else
makes him feel weak. As I said earlier, Okonkwo saw his father as weak man who was
not successful in life; therefore it is a trait that he despises. He feels as
if, any form of weakness will lead his life to be like his fathers. As Okonkwo
is a man who doesn’t share his emotions, pressure within him begins to build up
due to the all the feelings he has trapped inside of him, whether they are
positive or negative. These emotions suddenly get released in the form of anger
and violence. A good example of this is when he decides to beat up one of his
wives, Ekwefi, for no particular reason.
Masculinity is a theme that recurs
throughout this novel and is portrayed clearly through Okonkwo’s character. We
get to experience both, the feeling of being manly and also weakness through
one main character. It is like there is self-conflict within Okonkwo to act a
particular way even though at that moment, it may be going completely against
what he is actually feeling. I think that this pressure comes from different
things such as cultural tradition to be a certain way as well as that person’s
own experiences. This novel gives a different perspective on the life of
tribesmen living in rural Nigeria. It opens up Westerners ideas of Africans and
shows the cultural differences of the various societies living around the
world. What we see in Things Fall Apart,
allows us to understand that in some cultures, the pressures of social norms or
expectations for the elders is so strong that it will deviate you away from
your own beliefs.
