August 14, 2008
AP Lit
Mr. Gallagher
Violence
Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe is a richly constructed book that deals with the degeneration of a Nigerian tribe by focusing on the trials of the protagonist, Okonkwo. Beginning with the white settlers and the creation of their Church, a long process of deterioration within the tribe is catalyzed. Okonkwo is especially resistant to these tribal changes, which eventually culminates to his lashing out in an unmistakable act of violence. Rather than simply being the mark of a savage individual, Okonkwo’s violent action serves as a last effort to prevent the complete effacing of his culture and values, which Achebe uses to comment on the negative ramifications of outside forces.
From the initial meeting with the white settlers, the delicate structure of the tribe is irrevocably altered. Achebe writes of the missionaries’ effect with an unfavorable eye, for "the arrival of missionaries had caused a considerable stir in the village of Mbanta" and "when nearly two years later Obierka paid another visit to his friend [Okonkwo] in exile the circumstances were less happy. The missionaries had come to Umuofia. They had built their church there, won a handful of converts and were already sending evangelists to the surrounding towns and villages," (Achebe 144, 143). The missionaries infiltrate a pivotal part of tribal life- the religion. Before the changes take effect, the Ibo religion stringently dictates the daily and political life of the tribe. Described as polytheistic with an emphasis on the spiritual, the religion is the primary source of knowledge for the tribe including such decisions as to when to go to war and whom to execute. Thus, the missionaries’ work within the tribe begins to uproot the very core of their beliefs and shift the tribe’s priorities to what Okonkwo considers effeminate.
More so than perhaps any other, Okonkwo feels the changes in the tribe exceedingly. As a man whose purpose in life is to shed the influence of his "lazy" father, Okonkwo not only strives to gain power but to create a masculine persona (Achebe 4) within Umuofia. "He was a man of action, a man of war. Unlike his father he could stand the look of blood," (Achebe 10). It is no surprise then that Okonkwo is infuriated by these changes, and questions the dispassionate manner in which the tribe allowed the white men to usurp power. "What is it that has happened to our people? Why have they lost the power to fight?" Okonkwo questions of his tribe, (Achebe 175). Throughout the course of the book, Okonkwo is one character who remains steadfast to his beliefs and refuses to concede to the white settlers, thus resulting in his last acts of violence.
Thomas C. Foster writes that "violence is one of the most personal and even intimate acts between human beings, but it can also be cultural and societal in its implications," (Foster 88). Foster has touched upon the core of Okonkwo’s violence, as it’s very much culturally motivated. By the end of the book, Umuofia is finally willing to discuss the issues that plagued the tribe and to Okonkwo, this is ultimately viewed as a shift in the right direction. However, the meeting itself is eventually halted by the white men who "ordered this meeting to stop," (Achebe 204). This represents a decisive moment for Okonkwo, in his mind, this meeting is the last effort the tribe could have made to prevent the continued white presence within their tribe. Once he feels that this was threatened, "Okonkwo drew his machete … and the man’s head lay beside his uniformed body," (Achebe 204).
Literally Okonkwo kills the messenger based on the fact that he is disrupting the meeting and preventing the tribe from airing their considerable grievances. However, like Foster asserts, this one act of extreme violence is more a symbolic act than anything else. As a man who is gripped by a sudden desperation, killing the one messenger who opposes him is representative of eradicating of all those who upset the natural balance of the tribe. The violence is employed to highlight the tensions that develop as external forces erode the traditional values of the tribe. Similarly, Okonkwo commits a final act of violence upon himself by hanging. This violent act too is symbolic of one man’s inability to accept the changes being thrust at him. In this manner, Okonkwo is able to reassert the power that is usurped from him, and that he so craves. Okonkwo’s final acts of violence represent his last efforts to regain power within the tribe.
Although violence is prevalent throughout Things Fall Apart, the last examples "express such historical conditions" thus making them deeper in meaning (Foster 95) and more intricately connected to Achebe’s message. Okonkwo, through a desire to remain steadfast to his traditional tribal values, killed both the messenger and eventually himself in order to regain a level of authority in a tribe ravaged by external ideas. It should be noted that although the violence is committed with the purpose to gain greater power, ironically, his suicide is deemed weak and ineffectual thus he couldn’t be granted a proper burial. Okonkwo’s close friend Obierka speaks out against the action, "That man was one of the greatest men in Umuofia. You drove him to kill himself; and now he will be buried like a dog," thus conceding that it was the fault of the white men and their influence that ultimately caused Okonkwo’s downfall (Achebe 208). The violent actions committed by Okonkwo in his desperation to rid himself of alien ideas merely serves to enrich Achebe’s purpose, that external forces on a group of people have negative ramifications by disrupting the natural order.
**when transferring this from microsoft word, I wasn't sure how to make it double spaced or to even indent, so I spaced paragraphs instead or indenting. For this reason, the paper looks slightly elementary on the blog
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