In Things Fall Apart, the tragedy is that Okonkwo, the tragic hero, suffers a downfall and ends up killing himself. Even though his downfall could have been averted, the white missionaries are the main cause of Okonkwo's tragedy.
What is a tragedy? A tragedy has to have a tragic hero who suffers a downfall and has a tragic resolution. In Things Fall Apart, the tragedy is that Okonkwo, the tragic hero, suffers a downfall and ends up killing himself. Even though his downfall could have been averted, the white missionaries are the main cause of Okonkwo's tragedy.
At first everything was fine. Umuofia had its own culture and its own beliefs. Okonkwo was one of the strongest men of Umuofia. Okonkwo was masculine, industrious, respected, and wealthy. He didn't want to be like his father, in other words, a failure. He considered his father a failure because he was very lazy, ignominious, and poor. Okonkwo believed that every man should have power and that they shouldn't show any affection to others otherwise they would have been called women.
The tragedy begins when Okonkwo's gun explodes and kills Ogbuefi Ezedu's son. Because of that, Okonkwo take shis family into exile for seven years. Soon afterward, white missionaries arrive to Umuofia. "The elders consulted their Oracle and it told them that the strange man would break their clan and spread destruction among them" (Achebe 138). "It said that other white men were in their way" (Achebe 138). These two quotes foreshadow that the white men will come and spread destruction around Umuofia causing the clan to become weak. "And at last the locusts did descend. They settled on every tree and on every blade of grass; they settled on the roots and covered the bare ground. Mighty tree branches broke away under them, and the whole country became the brown-earth color of the vast, hungry swarm" (Achebe 56). This quote shows that the locusts, which symbolize the white men, are so heavy they break the tree branches. The branches are symbols of the traditions and cultural roots of Igbo society, which can no longer survive under the onslaught of white settlement. The whites started spreading their faith and sharing their beliefs all around Umuofia. They told all the people of the Igbo culture that their religion was bad because they worshipped many gods and that caught the people's attention, therefore all the people wanted to be like them. Mostly all the people were against the Igbo culture, even Okonkwo's son Nwoye. "But he says that our customs are bad; and our own brothers who have taken up his religion also say that our customs are bad. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart" (Achebe 176). The clan starts losing control and becomes very weak due to the settlement of the white men. Okonkwo sees that his, used to be strong, clan becomes very weak that they can't control their people anymore. After realizing that everything Umuofia used to be had fallen apart and that he couldn't do anything to prevent it, he commits suicide.
Even though the white missionaries came and changed everything around Umuofia, Okonkwo's fall could have been averted. If his clan wouldn't have become weak, Okonkwo wouldn't have committed suicide. If they would of have supported Okonkwo and become strong again, they would have prevented whites from staying in Umuofia and destroying it. Another way that Okonkwo's fall could have been averted was to join the whites. If he had joined the whites maybe his life wouldn't have had a tragic ending.
As a result, Okonkwo's tragedy was due to many things that happened in Umuofia, but the main reason was the arrival of the white missionaries because when they came, everything fell apart.
CHINUA ACHEBE THINGS FALL APART
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