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Things Fall Apart Achebe Term Paper

¶ … Things Fall Apart" Achebe before referencing Things Fall Apart: Summary

Things Fall Apart is the story of the tribal leader Okonkwo of the Umuofia tribe. At the beginning of the story, Okonkwo is rich and has three wives. He rules his family with an iron fist because he does not want to be like his father Unoka. At one point he beats his youngest wife so severely that even the masculine, patriarchal tribe is shocked. Okonkwo is always compensating for his impoverished childhood, which he sees as the fault of his spendthrift father. Although Unoka was a great musician, he was also undisciplined with his money, and Okonkwo wants to show his clansmen that he is strong. Okonkwo is ashamed of his oldest son Nwoye, who he sees as weak, and too much like the boy's grandfather. Okonkwo's daughter Ezinma is far stronger in temperament than Nwoye, and Okonkwo favors her in his heart, although he will not allow himself to any signs of affection for...

To prevent war, the tribe is given a boy and a girl by a neighboring people as tribute, and Okonkwo takes the young man Ikemefuna into his home. Nwoye comes to love Ikemefuna like a brother, and becomes stronger and more masculine, in emulation of his new hero. Okonkwo sees Ikemefuna as the son he always wanted to have, even though he acts as coldly to the boy as he does to all of his children. When the Oracle of the tribe demands Ikemefuna's death, Okonkwo insists that he help kill the boy who now calls him his father. His friend Ogbuefi Ezeudu says that Okonkwo must not lift a hand against the boy, but Okonkwo tells Ikemefuna that he is being returned to his home village and brutally stabs him to death. Nwoye does not forgive his father for this action, and things are never the same between father and son.
During the funeral of Ogbuefi Ezeudu, Okonkwo accidentally…

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Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. Heinemann, 1996.
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