Spoiler Alert
In Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe composes a cautionary tale of the innumerable ways patriarchy fails us all. The story centers Igbo people living in the fictional village of Umuofia, a society with values not too different from our own. Men occupy most if not all positions of power, the most important identities imposed upon women are as mothers or homemakers, and the one of the worst things you can call a man is a woman. Then, just as the ostracized and downtrodden reached their wit’s end, here come the missionaries, who arrive to preach the “Lord’s Word” to anyone willing to listen.
When the missionaries arrive they’re given no more respect than a pack of rodents. Their philosophies and practices are deemed more foolish than harmful. They talk about a god no one can see, and speak of a land no one can visit. But this underestimated, ragtag band of christians are able to grow their ranks by exploiting the suffering in the village. And no man is perhaps more responsible for their success, than the protagonist himself, Okwonko.
Born to Unoka, a man gentle in nature, but burdened with terrible debts, Okonkwo grows up in the shadow of his father’s failings. Unoka’s financial mismanagement and carefree nature bring tremendous shame to both himself and his family as his reputation is tarnished in both life and death. Okonkwo is tired of living in shame, and poverty and after his father dies, vows to become a real man, a propertied man, a reliable man. He vows to become everything his father was not.
And so Okonkwo was ruled by one passion — to hate everything that his father Unoka had loved. One of those things was gentleness and another was idleness (Achebe 13)
As he gets older, Okonkwo manages to do well for himself, and avoid the destitution his father faces, but his ambition blinds him.
In Umuofia violence is one of the rungs you may climb to advance in society. If you are not imbued with spiritual abilities at birth then one of the main means in which you impress the elders and gain rank is through your strength in the ring, or in war. Given Okonkwo’s desire to prove himself, and build a legacy of his own, it only made sense for him to hop in the ring and become the man he hoped his father would be.
It was this man Okonkwo threw in a fight which the old men agreed was one of the fiercest since the founder of their town engaged a spirit of the wild for seven days and seven nights. (Achebe 3)
Vigor and brutality in the ring earn him immediate respect from his community, as he wins battle after battle. His status and grit transformed him into a well-respected landowner with vast fields of yams and a few wives to tend to his every need. Unfortunately for Okonkwo, his brazenness increases as quickly as his wealth does. His predilection for violence doesn’t stop inside the ring, anytime he has to interact with anyone that he deems inferior, whether it’s a woman, or his own children, he beats them senselessly until they fear him. It’s after one of these beatings that Okonkwo’s eldest son, decides to join the missionaries himself.
The missionaries’ ranks grow as they recruit from the downtrodden, the ostracized lesser people known as “Osu”, and all the brutalized men, women and children. Soon they have a membership that starts to rival the village population.
The church had come and led many astray. Not only the low-born and the outcast but sometimes a worthy man had joined it. Such a man was Ogbuefi Ugonna, who had taken two titles, and who like a madman had cut the anklet of his titles and cast it away to join the Christians. (Achebe 174)
In addition to these outcasts, there’s an even larger segment of the population that quietly questions some of the customs, but fears to speak out for fear of retribution. For instance, one of the customs of the village is to sacrifice all twins to the earth goddess. One mother who was been forced to sacrifice four pairs of twins, leaves the village and joins the church as a means of escape.
The membership for the church grows and surpasses that of the village which loses all and the village loses all power.
That was one of the greatest men in Umuofia. You drove him to kill himself; and now he will be buried like a dog... (Achebe 208)
In the final act of Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo kills himself and becomes a martyr for all those left behind. The legacy of Umuofia falls with one of their greatest warriors as the missionaries succeed in spreading the “Lord’s Word”.
Although the missionaries won’t create a more equal society for all the outcasts, women, and children, they at least listen and pretend to have their best interests at heart, as opposed to men like Okonkwo who simply deem anyone weaker as inferior. Things Fall Apart demonstrates that a society rife with inequalities renders itself vulnerable to false prophets and colonizers. If we choose to ignore or disregard the wishes and cries of the few, then in the end, we may all suffer.
