This paper claims that Okonkwo acts consistently in deciding to kill his adopted son Ikemefun.
The character of Okonkwo’s hero is more fully revealed in the second and third parts, which illustrate his influence on the people of Mbanta and Umuofia. Despite this, the decision to personally take the life of a boy who became almost his own son is symbolic and symbolic. It portrays Okonkwo as a man obsessed with ideas, which is not always appropriate. Ikemefun’s murder leads to severe mental anguish for Okonkwo, and ultimately to his temporary exile from the village where he has such a significant leadership role (Umezurike, 2021). Okonkwo’s fate unfolds in such a way that the death of Ikemefun becomes the starting point for further misfortunes and disappointments.
In Mbanta he encounters white settlers and a premonition of a threat to the existence of a way of life that he not only defends but also personifies. Okonkwo is a leader who is concerned above all with the fate of his own tribe and village (Afejuku, 2022). His personal defeats for him are inseparable from the defeat of his culture before the audacious colonizers (Özün & Baskale, 2019). But unfortunately, personal defeats often prevent him from becoming a more ideal, more worthy leader, one who would win and prove his truth.
The irony of the novel is that Okonkwo is right – his world is being destroyed unfairly, and his actions are very important to his fellow tribesmen (Rashid, 2018). However, horrified or seduced by the new Christian idea, they cannot appreciate Okonkwo’s efforts and support him, recognize his truth, and thereby alleviate suffering (Jani, 2021). Perhaps Okonkwo is such an ardent idealist that he alone must oppose forces that are more powerful than man – the forces of the crowd, the forces of civilizational changes and shifts (Mengara, 2019). He decides on actions that destroy him and ends his life by suicide, which is a symbol of the deepest suffering of the soul. The novel is written very expressively, and the reader feels sincere sympathy for the main character.
References
Afejuku, T. E. (2022). The meaning of solitude/loneliness/isolation in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God. In Posthumanism and Phenomenology (pp. 137-147). Springer, Cham.
Jani, D. (2021). Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart: Literary humanism and the question of human dignity. Research in African Literatures, 52(2), 29-53.
Mengara, D. M. (2019). Colonial intrusion and stages of colonialism in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. African Studies Review, 62(4), 31-56.
Özün, S. O., & Baskale, N. (2019). The distortion of cultural identity in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Trakya Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, 9(18), 86-99.
Rashid, A. K. M. (2018). Re-reading Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart: A postcolonial perspective. International Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Translation (IJLLT).
Umezurike, U. P. (2021). ‘A son who is a man:’ Receptive masculinity in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Norma, 16(4), 205-216.