The book I choose for my second book
report was, "Things Fall Apart", by Chinua Achebe. This book is about
a African community leader who feels overwhelmed and controlled by the
stigma left by his fathers past and wrong-doing. The narrator of
the story is the person interpreting it, the reader who in this case is
me, the reader. The story takes place in a Nigerian village called
Igbo (Ibo). It's during the late 1800s and early 1900s when the British
Empire expanded into Africa. The conflicts illustrated are racial
discrimination, self and inter family conflicts.
The main character of the story is
the fierce warrior around and son of Unoka, Okonkwo. Is name means
pride and stubbornness, which describes him exactly. He is the leader
of the Igbo community and a wealthy farmer of yams. He has three
wife's and many children. Okonkwo is a very brave and powerful symbol
in his community. Everyone looks up to him with admiration and fear.
They most fear him because of his ways of fighting during battles.
He always wins and as a tradition has to bring the head of the first person
he kills and drink from it to prove his victory. Okonkwo has established
all these titles to try and cover the shame he feels about the failures
and faults of his father, Unoka. Okonkwo hates his father for all the bad
things he left when he died ten years ago. That's why in the story
Nwoye is harassed and nagged by his father, Okonkwo, because he resembles
his grandfather. Okonkwo changes when he accidentally killed Ezeudu's
16-year-old son. He has brought shame to his family just like his
father did the same to his family. In the end of the story Okonkwo
changes because after committing such crimes he kills a court messenger
and then commits suicide to escape the shame and misery his life has lead.
I think that Okonkwo is a man who has been greatly affected by his childhood
and all of his actions result from his past experiences. He's just
trying to hard to be considered brave and powerful because in the inside
he's really just a scared man without the answers to life as he assumes
he has.
The second major character is
Unoka. Even though he his dead already everything that he accomplished
while living affects the story. Unoka was the father of Okonkwo.
He was a lazy and irresponsible man. He didn't work and only borrowed
money making huge debts. He was often called a women, which is considered
low and shameful for a man. Everything that Unoka did is hated by
Okonkwo. Okonkwo remembers all of the terrible gilt his father caused
him and try's to do the opposite to cover up all those bad memories.
Unoka affects all the decisions Okonkwo makes, for example when people
called Unoka a women Okonkwo built up his status to a brave and powerful
man. If Unoka would have been alive in the story I would have probably
hated his standard of living and disliked the way he treated others.
The third major character is Ikemefuna.
He was a gift given by a neighboring village to avoid war. He was
very clever and smart. He lived with Okonkwo for only three years
because of his death. Ikemefuna was never allowed to fight in a war
because he was thought to intelligent and could bring new ideas to the
village. Ikemefuna was almost like a brother to Nwoye. They
learned from each other and had a strong friendship. Okonkwo always
had suspicions on their strong relationship and felt threatened by his
sons, Nwoye, new knowledge and confidence. Ikemefuna is later killed
by Okonkwo out of his worries that the connection between Nwoye and Ikemefuna
would turn his son into women and cause his family shame and gilt.
Ikemefuna changes by learning to love his new family and becoming more
brave and intelligent in his new community. I liked Ikemefuna the
most out of all the characters because he was very frightened at first
but overcame this obstacle and made himself into a clever and good teacher
to his friends.
The first scene that expressed major
conflict was when Okonkwo killed Ikemefuna. This was a huge shock
and great mystery. At first I didn't understand why Okonkwo would
do such a thing to Ikemefuna who called him father and was like a son to
him. Then I learned that the reason for Okonkwo killing Ikemefuna
was that the oracle had said that Nwoye would turn weak if Ikemefuna were
alive so someone should kill him but not Okonkwo. They take Ikemefuna
to the forest and tell him that he is being sent home to Mbaino.
This is a plot to kill him. Other members of the clan were suppose
to kill him but with their first strike Ikemefuna said to Okonkwo, "My
father they have killed me!" with this Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna in order
not to show weakness in front of the men. This tragic scene leads
to Okonkwo's disasters and scares him forever.
The second scene that expressed major
conflict was when the District Commissioner placed all the leaders including
Okonkwo in jail for destroying a church. This entire ordeal became
the main reason on why Okonkwo hated the whites and killed the messenger.
He wanted his community to fight off the white men and not join their culture
but after realizing that even Nwoye became a Christian and many others
from his community he became violent. When he was let out of jail
he still felt the same because he was mistreated and felt that revenge
was needed. This all leads to the conclusion of his death.
He must have felt that it would be worse to live knowing that he had no
power anymore and would rather die cowardly.
The novel ends with Okonkwo's death.
He committed suicide after facing the reality that there are many changes
in life and not all of them you are going to enjoy. He didn't want
to face the fact that the white people were taking over his community and
that he had sunken down to the same level of status as his fathers.
Everything backfired on him because he always made his judgments on the
opposite of what his father did and what the people would say of him.
The author's message is clear its saying that even though you're a powerful
leader or a fierce warrior everyone always has a weakness. Even in
Greek Mythology when Acheles the strong warrior had a weak ankle or in
Oedipus where no matter how hard he tried to escape his fate it still got
around and killed him. I apply this to every failure I encounter
in my life and know that no ones perfect and mistakes are meant to happen
but you can't give up and have to pursue your dreams through all the ups
and downs. Everyone has flaws and even if you try with all your might
to be perfect it can never come to a total finish.
I enjoyed the book very much and at
first had a different interpretation to what it was going to illustrate.
I understood the message and gained knowledge from the character mistakes.
The book reinforces my attitudes on the way church missionaries treated
the Africans. I always thought that they were helping them and not
forcing them to become Christian. This surprised me greatly and made
me see this time in our past more insightful and very important.
I would recommend this book to people who are very concerned with their
status and on not showing their feelings. It will help them see that
even though your a boy doesn't mean you can't cry and if your a girl then
your limits in life are not only in a kitchen. It will give you new
inspiration as it has given me.
