In many ways Things Fall Apart is considered a tragedy. Why would Achebe, taking into account the cultural context, choose to characterize Okonkwo using the tragic hero archetype?
Achebe produced his novel as a literary piece, providing both sides of the story between the white missionaries and Umuofian public. In the tale, he desired to keep a balance between the two sides and Okonkwo himself is, ironically, lob sided towards the previous or ancient Nigerian culture of the Ibo people. The result of his perishing is persistently depicted due to the transformation of society from one stage to another, as Achebe focuses on the historic purpose of how the Nigerians were influenced by the white missionaries and that, overall, culture and society has progressed. Okonkwo's death similarly symbolizes the death of Ibo belief and rituals, not as a stance of support towards the great destruction that the missionaries had convicted upon the ancient Nigeria, but to display an image of reality and provide a true, yet meaningful account of local history, attempting to fish-out or subtract the modern-day emphasized or exaggerated stories that lack coherence and truth, aiming only to show a single side of the actual happenings. This can also be evidently justified through the fact that the novel concluded at Okonkwo’s death, rather than developing onwards, as Achebe designed the novel to provide a neutral viewpoint with little details of the ongoing events and what he likely assessed to occur soon afterwards with British rule.
No comments:
Post a Comment