Okonkwo is Really Falling Apart

Things are really “falling apart” for Okonkwo in the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Okonkwo is a famous wrestler and great warrior in his village, Umuofia, but in spite of recent events he is “an exile, condemned for seven years to live in a strange land” (Achebe 133). This punishment comes as a result of him accidentally killing someone while firing his weapon in commemoration of another great warrior who recently died. Now Okonkwo is fleeing to his motherland with his wives and children and his life begins to disintegrate.

In Umuofia, Okonkwo was a hardworking man who had great wealth and possessed titles, but after being banished we find that “work no longer had the pleasure for him it used to have (Achebe 131). Throughout his life Okonkwo has worked hard so that he would not be an unsuccessful man as his father was, but now it seems as though he has accepted defeat. Work was such a large part of him that without his great work ethic he will crumble. His family needs him in order to survive and be able to return home in seven years but, Okonkwo is broken and without him things are sure to fall apart.

While Okonkwo has been in exile, Christian missionaries have now come to his new village in hopes of spreading the word of god and converting the people of the village. The people of the village are interested but none more than Nwoye, Okonkwo’s son who is drawn to the new religion. Nwoye was haunted by the “question of the twins crying in the brush and the question of Ikemfuna who was killed” (Achebe 147). These issues drew Nwoye into the religion ,and before long he left his family and joined the missionaries. Not only is Okonkwo himself falling apart but his family is as well.

In these past few chapters Okonkwo has suffered a great deal. His life has been in utter chaos. He has given up everything he has spent his entire life working for. By being exiled Okonkwo has lost his home, titles, and most importantly his work ethic. Okonkwo is certainly not the man he once was ,but is now broken and crumbling into pieces.