In the novel, Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, the whole plot is permeated with tragic thought. In the words of Toni Morrison, literature “turns sadness into meaning” (Morrison, 2009, p. 23). The novel’s problem is deeply embedded in the chain of events. Okonkwo does not show his love to the boy for fear of appearing weak. As a result, this fear goes so far that he not only kills Ikemefun but also renounces his family, religion and decides to commit suicide. Destruction is the main idea of the novel and it takes on different scales: from the personality to the entire religion.
Okonkwo’s mental conflicts and the examples given in the excerpts, with the help of metaphors, immediately reveal a whole layer of problems. Such destructions they describe always leads to emptiness, sadness but at the same time opens up space for new traditions. The old habits are depicted with the help of allegory, as “ancestors” in the first passage – “The life of a person from birth to death was a series of transitional rituals that brought him closer and closer to his ancestors” (Achebe, 1994). This implicit sadness contains the eternal conflict of generations and traditions.
Toni Morrison develops a similar idea in her lecture. She tells the story of a bird and a blind woman, using allegory to represent the language and the writer under their images. The woman is asked if the bird is alive. Her answer reflects, among other things, the position of the author of the novel Chinua Achebe: she does not know whether she is alive or dead, but in both cases, the responsibility lies with the person who holds her (Morisson, 1993). In the novel, the culprit for the destruction of Okonkwo’s personality, the disintegration of the clan, which Elder Mbata speaks of in the second passage, the destruction of family ties and religion, is the person himself who has taken control into his own hands.
The traumatic events that Toni Morrison talks about lead to tragic outcomes (Morrison, 2009). The story will not pass without a trace for every surviving participant in this novel. District Commissioner Gregory Irwin thinks Okonkwo’s story will make a “sensible” chapter in the book. Okonkwo’s followers tarnished his reputation after learning of suicide. Christianity is introduced in Umuofiya (Achebe, 1994). This novel shows us that change is unavoidable. However, it is not worth changing the principles, which casts doubt on the entire spiritual basis of the personality. Okonkwo should have listened to his heart even in the first part of the work; perhaps, many could have avoided tragic consequences.
Elder Mbata, in his monologue, compares a man to a hunting dog that has gone mad (Achebe, 1994). It is the destruction of personality, which is shown in detail to us on the example of Okonkwo. However, he is not the only antagonist of the entire story. For the age-old traditions of the Igbo people to be shaken, either a strong influence from the outside is needed, or a lot of people, in whose minds the destruction of the old foundations has occurred. In the novel, like dominoes, one after another, destruction occurs, the shocks of which were given as the actions of Okonkwo, to the same extent, and the time that requires changes.
References
Achebe, C. (1994). Things fall apart. Anchor.
Morrison, T. (1993). Nobel lecture. The Nobel Prize. Web.
Morrison, T. (2009). Burn this book.. Harper.