Things Fall Apart Essay, Research Paper

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.