Things fall apart by Chinua Achebe

Things Fall Apart in the novel, do we see anyone who stands for this sort of peace? If so, where is it best illustrated? Is Okonkwo really just full of passionate intensity or is he flawed? What is Okonkwo 'missing'?

In Achebe's novel, no man or woman really stands for peace. A true peace is hard won. A true peace is a state of societal being can only be realized with great collective effort. Yes, Okonkwo's friend Obierika embodies the most balanced perspective of all of the tribe. But because Obierika is unable to put his beliefs into proactive action, he does not generate true peace in his world. Men like Martin Luther King Jr. And Gandhi may have advocated nonviolence, but they advocated nonviolent civil disobedient action with a purpose, not simply standing by and doing nothing and trying to tolerate all perspectives, even destructive and hateful perspectives. Although they were clearly 'the best' of their respective societies struggling to be free, these men could hardly be characterized as lacking all conviction.

The Christian missionaries of the novel might claim to stand for peace, but they wish to eradicate the native beliefs of African society in a way that does violence to another's culture. Okonkwo seems full of passionate intensity to preserve things as they are, and to preserve his sense of masculine, patriarchal authority. But although this sense of passion seems to have its origin sense of nostalgia for traditional forms of control, it is also too tied up the man's ego to be called a conviction. A true conviction about justice is not self-interested. It is also worth remembering that Okonkwo's father did not embody such authority within his own family structure, thus Okonkwo partly wishes to defy his own family's tradition. And Okonkwo's sense of wishing to preserve the positive aspects of his personal authority does not mean that he is not willing to kill his adopted son, for fear of looking weak, even though this hurts the tribe's future. Thus Okonkwo lacks convictions that transcend the self, and denies such positive self-sacrificing values as feminine.