Nwoye and Ikemefuna spend all their time together like brothers. In the evenings, they sit with Okonkwo in his hut and listen to his manly stories of violence and bloodshed. Nwoye still enjoys his mothers folk tales and legends, but he tries to impress Okonkwo by acting masculine by pretending to dislike the womens stories and by grumbling about women. Okonkwo is inwardly pleased as Nwoye grows more tough and manly, and he credits the change to Ikemefunas good influence.
The murder scene is a turning point in the novel. Okonkwo participates in the ceremony for sacrificing the boy after being strongly discouraged, and he delivers the death blow because he is “afraid of being thought weak.” At a deep, emotional level, Okonkwo kills a boy who “could hardly imagine that Okonkwo was not his real father” — someone whom Okonkwo truly loves as a son. Okonkwo has not only outwardly disregarded his people and their traditions, but he has also disregarded his inner feelings of love and protectiveness. This deep abyss between Okonkwos divided selves accounts for the beginning of his decline.
Many men of Umuofia accompany Ikemefuna to the outskirts of the village and into the forest. With Okonkwo walking near him, Ikemefuna loses his fear and thinks about his family in Mbaino. Suddenly, Okonkwo drops to the rear of the group and Ikemefuna is afraid again. As the boys back is turned, one of the men strikes the first blow with his machete. Ikemefuna cries out to Okonkwo, “My father, they have killed me!” and runs toward Okonkwo. Afraid to appear weak, Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna with his machete.
In Chapter 2, the author comments that the fate of Ikemefuna is a “sad story” that is “still told in Umuofia unto this day.” This observation suggests that the decision to kill Ikemefuna was not a customary one. Before dying, Ikemefuna thinks of Okonkwo as his “real father” and of what he wants to tell his mother, especially about Okonkwo. These elements combined suggest that the murder of Ikemefuna is senseless, even if the killing is in accordance with the Oracle and village decisions.
For the first time in the novel, Okonkwos son, Nwoye, emerges as a major character who, in contrast to his father, questions the long-standing customs of the clan. Achebe begins to show the boys conflicting emotions; he is torn between being a fiercely masculine and physically strong person to please his father and allowing himself to cherish values and feelings that Okonkwo considers feminine and weak.
Ikemefuna lived with Okonkwos family for three years before he was executed. He actually became a well loved part of the family before the elders of the community ordered his death. The one thing we dont know is why the oracle ordered Ikemefunas execution, except that his death was in fact a part of religious ritual. The oracles orders were law. No matter how much the boy was loved, his fate was sealed.
Even though Okonkwo loves Ikemefuna and in some ways thinks more highly of him than of his own son, Okonkwo participates in the death of Ikemefuna because it has been decreed by the oracle, and he is also scared of being thought to be weak by the other men with him. One of the major aspects of Okonkwos character is the way that he set himself to be completely different from his father, who was thought to be weak, feminine and not manly enough. Therefore, throughout the novel, Okonkwo deliberately pushes himself to show everybody, including himself, how manly he can be. Note how the text describes the death of Ikemefuna in Chapter VII: He heard Ikemefuna cry, “My father, they have killed me!” as he ran towards him. Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his matchet and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak. What drives Okonkwo to participate in the killing of Ikemefuna therefore is his fear of being perceived as “weak” if he hung back and did not participate. Even though others have counselled him not to be involved in this killing, Okonkwos fear of what others might think of him and what they might say drives him to kill Ikemefuna, which is an action that will haunt him for some time afterwards. Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna even though Ikemefuna viewed Okonkwo as a father because Okonkwo does not want to appear weak in front of the villagers. Okonkwo does not want to be judged as one who has suddenly become weak and affectionate because of a boy. To prove the villager that he is still strong, he decides to take part to kill Ikemefuna. Okwonkwo didnt want to seem weak, and he was a traditional man. He believed ikemefunas death was was something that had to be done, therefore he separated his feelings and his “responsibility”. When Ikemafuna was stabbed in the back by a machete, he yelled out to Okonkwo to save him but in fear of looking weak (which stems from his issues with his father) in front of his friends he finished off Ikemafuna.
This essay is an attempt to a deconstructive interpretation of Okonkwo in Chinua Achebes ” Things Fall Apart “. It begins by reviewing literary comments on Chinua Achebe and later dovetails an explication of the meaning of deconstruction as a way of enabling to grapple with the realities of this post structuralist critical formulation. This essay observes that Okonkwo is not only a brutal cannibal but also a barbarian. This refers to the backdrop of his penchant for killing as shown in the novel. This opinion is buttressed by Okonkwos ruthless habit of drinking from his first human head, which is a tilled smack of cannibalism. Based on the theory of deconstruction, it concludes that the scientific reading relies only on the text which functions as the real mirror of society which literature is all about.
ABSTRACT The research’s concern here is on women oppression in the Igbo society and with its impact on the societal destruction. When carrying the research, the forms of women oppression were investigated in this Achebe’s Things Fall Apart whereby inequality, inheritance deprivation for female gender, women beating and other abuses against femininity were mainly based on in this research to investigate the reasons of Igbo societal destruction. Okonkwo who ruled his wives and children with a heavy hand was both a woman hater and oppressor. Hence, this behavior and belief have to be searched on for the purpose of finding out how it might lead his society to get destroyed. This research bears the following objectives: To identify the forms of oppression in Things Fall Apart, to examine in which ways the society gets destroyed due to women oppression and to emphasize what women can do so as to get equal chances to their counterparts. Referring to the objectives mentioned above, the researcher wanted to answer these questions: the first question was how has the Igbo society demonstrated the forms of women oppression in Things Fall Apart? The forms of oppression were based on women beating, deprivation of inheritance for female gender and different abuse against women. The second one is, where did the society get destroyed in the Igbo society in Things Fall Apart? It is identified that women role is limited to households and children bearing not in economic and political whereby the women are not able to possess anything like men. The third is how the women oppression contributed to the societal destruction? The protagonist of Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo, a woman hater and oppressor led his society to destruction whereby his son Nwoye abused by him to behave like women became one of the people who got converted into Christianity unlike traditional and other hatred and violence against the femininity contributed much to the society destruction. The findings identified that the Igbo society practiced different women oppression such as inequality, lack of inheritance for girls’ children, and women beating. It was also noticed here that women were socially and economically undermined by men through their patriarchal culture and society. The violence against the femininity pushed Okonkwo to hung himself so that he could not be called a weak or woman for handing himself in white men’s hands after killing the white man messenger. From this death, Umuofia has completely fallen apart in the white men’s hands. The contribution of this research is to help women be aware of their rights and fight against the culture to which they belong. Men should empower women and consider them like human beings instead of limiting their lives in the kitchen and in the households. It especially motivates the other researchers who are interested in feminism and gender to make a comparison about the women life of the past and today in Igbo society. It is additionally hoped for further researchers to conduct the research in Igbo society for assessing whether the patriarchal culture has changed and women are no longer oppressed these days.
In Chinua Achebes masterpiece of the destructive forces of colonial conquest in Africa, “Things Fall Apart”, Okonkwo is driven to control his family and achieve power through fear and violence; using his masculinity to destroy any signs of femininity in his sons. Ironically, in the end, Okonkwo is reduced to a feminine status by the British colonizers that overthrow his power with fear and violence as well, leaving him stripped of power and his masculinity – transformed into what he feared most: of becoming effeminate and powerless like a woman and like his father -who he resented and was ashamed of.
A first reading of the novel reveals the fact that what fall apart in Things fall apart are Igbo’s cultures and traditions. Accordingly a lot of readings have been done on the novel with almost similar disclosures; considering it as a postcolonial novel and as Achebe’s response to the white racism embedded in European literature, which presented Africa as a primitive and socially retrograde nation. Hence, reading Things Fall Apart from a new and distinct perspective with the aid of trances from reader response criticism, this study aims to answer the question of; what really falls apart (in Things Fall Apart) and how? Through a close and transactional reading of the novel this study demonstrates that Igbo’s culture and religion didn’t fall apart but changed and in fact, what falls apart in Things Fall Apart is Okonkwo, the protagonist of the novel. By studying and comparing his conducts, before and after killing Ikemefona it reveals that his mortal sin parts him beyond the limits of his cultural conventions, in the process of gaining his individual purposes, which later leads to his downfall.
FAQ
Why is ikemefuna death important?
When did Okonkwo kill ikemefuna?
Why does Okonkwo kill ikemefuna in Chapter 7?
What was Okonkwo’s punishment for killing ikemefuna?
