| Things Fall Apart- Essay, Research Paper
Things Fall Apart-
There was a man who dreamed as a child of being well known and
respected throughout his village and neighboring villages. This man,
Okonko, worked hard at his goal, and he achieved it. Okonko, a man
with great strength and personality, had achieved his goal to become
rich and famous, a privilege that was unseen before in his family.
Although Okonko reached his goal at an early age, his life began to
Fall Apart when tragic episodes took place.
One can see that Okonko s life first began to fall apart when
Ikemefuna, a captive who stayed at Okonko s home, was killed. Okonko
had thought of Ikemefuna as one of his own sons. He was deeply
saddened when he was killed. One can see the effects on Okonko from
that event. First Okonko was unable to sleep for the following three
days. He also kept on getting drunk, and that was a sign that he was
depressed. This incident also had a long-term effect on Okonko. From
then on his family would look at him as if it were his fault that
Ikemefuna is dead. This episode can be seen as an event where Okonko
looses some faith from his family. This corresponds to Okonko loosing
faith in his father.
Another important occurrence where one can see that Okonko s
life falls apart was when he was thrown out of the clan for a few
years. From this episode one can see that Okonko s hopes dreams have
begun to fall apart. His hopes of being a rich and popular individual
had drifted away with this upsetting incident. Okonko had no longer
had his farm or animals. Also Okonko lost faith with most of his
friends. This goes to show that Okonko lost faith with his friends,
like his father lost faith with his.
Another episode that showed the downfall in Okonko s life was
when Nwoye, his oldest and favorite son, converted to the white mans
religion, Christianity. To Okonko this was very upsetting because
Nwoye was his eldest son, and Okonko had the greatest expectations for
him. When news came to him that Nwoye was among the white men, one
could have foreseen that only no good was coming to Okonko after that.
By glancing at Okonko s life, one could see that the title Things Fall
Apart fits perfectly with the book. Starting from the episode with
Ikemefuna, one can see that Okonko s life will fall apart. Then, later
on in the book, when Okonko was thrown out of his clan, one could have
been sure that Okonko s hopes of being rich and famous were ruined.
After all that, with the incident of Nwoye, one could see that
Okonko s life was a total failure. Any speculator could see that
Okonko had not achieved his goals, but instead, by the end of his
life, he had become a failure like his father.
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