Resistance to Change in Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart...

Achebes novel Things Fall Apart chronicles the life of an individual whose carefully constructed world crumbles as his culture is assimilated into a colonizing society. This character, Okonkwo, is prestigious within his community, and in most respects views himself and is viewed by his neighbors as an honorable man. Yet for all his seeming honor, Okonwko self-destructs when his world begins to change. Although the value system held by Okonkwos village may differ somewhat from that held by other cultures, his particular experience during colonization is universal. When Okonkwo defines himself as an honorable man and thinks back upon his life achievements that have made him so, he focuses most strongly upon his ferocity.†¦show more content†¦In Okonkwos village, demonstrating honor brings several privileges embodied in wives and titles (8). The prerequisite for marrying is wealth, as mentioned in Ekwefis thoughts on the night of her daughters abduction: She had married Anene because Okonkwo was too poor then to marry. Even though she longed for Okonkwo, Ekwefi had to wait until he had established himself financially to leave her first husband for him (109). Of course with enough wealth, a man can take on several wives, with the advantages of having several women to pleasure him, cook for him, and bear him sons, bringing him more esteem in the village. Okonkwo seems satisfied with the number of wives he has taken, yet throughout the novel yearns for more titles. These titles distinguish Okonkwo as a member of the nobility and ensure his participation in the political and spiritual life of the village. For example, he is sent to a neighboring village to retrieve the young man given as retribution for a crime and entrusted with that childs care (12). He also enjoys participating in counsels of the village men (26) and even plays the part of one of the egwugwu, a secretive role reserved for the nobility among the village men (89). He longs to initiate his sons into the ozo society, leaving a legacy of nobility in his name (183). And it is his inability to further his nobility through title acquisition that he laments during his banishment in his mothers village: His life hadShow MoreRelatedOkonkwo’s Resistance to Change in  Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart1458 Words   |  6 Pages The character of Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe’s  Things Fall Apart  was driven by fear, a fear of change and losing his self-worth. He needed the village of Umuofia, his home, to remain untouched by time and progress because its system and structure were the measures by which he assigned worth and meaning in his own life. 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