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An
overview of the story:
The
central figure in Achebe's tale is a relatively prosperous and well
regarded warrior by the name of Okonkwo. He lives in Nigeria in one of
the nine related villages that border each other and which constitute
the wider world for his tribe. He himself belongs to the Umuofia clan.
Umuofia, in Ibo stands for "people of the forest".
Okonkwo is conscious of his good standing in his village and this
is in stark contrast with that of his lazy and spendthrift father,
Unoka, who borrowed from his neighbours but never settled his debts. In
the culture to which he subscribed one became influential by spending
some of his wealth on the community and by earning titles. His father
had no titles and no money. The
son Okonkwo is determined to reverse all of this. He is a determined farmer, a steadfast clansman and a fearless
warrior. With many wives and plenty of food in store, Okonkwo looks like
making more of his life than the father he so powerfully despised:
| But in spite of these disadvantages, he had
begun even in his father’s lifetime to lay the foundations of a
prosperous future. It was slow and painful. But he threw himself into it
like one possessed. And indeed he was possessed by the fear of his
father’s contemptible life and shameful death. (p.17)
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In trying to over
compensate for his poor start in life, Okonkwo
became haughty and was very brusque with less successful men. He knew, ‘how to kill a
man’s spirit’. On the other hand he was very tough on himself so
that in keeping with Ibo belief his little god or chi was with
him in what he did simply because he willed that it should be so.
Okonkwo
established a great reputation for himself by becomin a champion
wrestler. At this time, when Okonkwo was basking in the glow of fame,
someone from another village had murdered the wife of Udo, a fellow
clansman. Not unexpectedly Okonkwo was chosen by the elders ‘to carry a
message of war to their enemies unless they agreed to give up a young
man and a virgin to atone for the murder.’ The
fearful neighbours quickly submitted to the demands and yielded up a virgin and
a boy as Okonkwo demanded.
On
his successful return to his village Umuofia, Udo is given the virgin in
place of his murdered wife and Okonkwo is requested to keep the boy Ikemefuna.
The boy was very popular with everyone in
the household and especially with Okonkwo's son,
Nwoye.
Even Okonkwo ‘himself became very fond of the boy –
inwardly of course. Okonkwo never showed any emotion openly, unless it
be the emotion of anger.’
Anger
was something welled up easily in Okonkwo’s breast as when his third
wife was late because she had gone to plait her hair. When ‘she
returned home he beat her very heavily.
In his anger he had forgotten that it was the Week of Peace.’
Before dusk the priest Ezeani came to remonstrate with Okonkwo as he had
committed an evil that could ‘ruin the whole clan’. Although ‘his
enemies and his good fortune had gone to his head’ he submissively offered the
atonement that the goddess Ani would require and so Ezeani was satisfied.
All
of that was a temporary thing as his temper would flare again and he
would resort to violence. Not only did he approve of violence for
himself, he advocated it for others too. During the feast of the New Yam he
gave his second wife ‘a sound beating’ for cutting off a few leaves
from a banana tree to wrap some food. In his view there was no compromise about a man
ruling his women and his children with an iron fist. He even implanted in his son Nwoye
the notion that ‘it was right to be masculine and to be violent.’
Violence,
wherever it is practised, takes on a life of its own. Just
when everything seemed to be progressing smoothly and evenly, Okonkwo is informed that the
Oracle of the Hills and the Caves had pronounced that Ikemefuna should
be killed. This is shattering news. Okonkwo compliantly informs the boy ‘that he was to be taken home the
next day’. His son Nwoye bursts into tears. The men of Umuofia escort
the boy, and after several hours of walking the ‘man who had cleared
his throat drew up and raised his matchet’ and struck the boy.
Ikemefuna cried out, ‘My father, they have killed me!.’ and ran
towards him. ‘Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his matchet and cut him
down.’
When Okonkwo returns home, Nwoye instinctively deduces that his
friend is dead. Okonkwo falls into a depression and just when he is
about to get over it another tragic event befalls him. His
gun accidently explodes and kills Ogbuefi, Ezeudu’s sixteen-year-old son. As the
killing of a clansman is a crime against the earth goddess, Okonkwo has
to atone for his deed by taking his family into exile for seven years to
Mbanta, the village where his mother was born. As
he leaves, his animals are killed by the villagers and his buildings are
burnt in order to cleanse the village of his sin.
During the period of his exile,
white men begin coming to Umuofia with the purpose of introducing
christianity. Their missionary endeavours are quite successful and as
their penetration grows, they introduce a new administration. The
village Okonkwo returns to is very different to the one he had left a
short while back. In his usual reactive way, Okonkwo and other tribal
leaders try to fight back by destroying a local Christian church that had
offended them by insulting their gods and beliefs. The white
administration retaliates by taking them prisoners and by humiliating
their leaders. As the people of Umuofia prepare for an uprising
messengers of the white government try to stop their meeting and Okonkwo kills one of them. His fellow clansman, however, allow the other
messengers to escape and it becomes all too obvious to Okonkwo that the
path of revenge he is following is a lost cause.
Okonkwo hangs himself rather
than yield himself to the District Commissioner.Unwilling to compromise
or face further humiliation, he sacrificed his own life.
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