Irony in Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart :: Things Fall Apart essays

Things Fall Apart That grade the harvest was sad, like a funeral, and many farmers wept as they dug up the miserable and rotting yams. One man tied his cloth to a tree branch and hanged himself. Okonkwo remembered that tragic year with a cold bang throughout the rest of his support. It always surprised him when he thought of it later that he did non sink under the load of despair. He knew that he was a bowelless fighter, but that year had been enough to break the lovingness of a lion. Since I survived that year, he always said, I shall survive anything. He put it down to his inflexible willing. His father, Unoka, who was then an ailing man, had said to him during that odious harvest month Do not despair. I know that you will not despair. You have a manly and a proud heart. A proud heart can survive a general calamity because such a failure does not prick its pride. It is more delicate and more bitter when a man fails alone. The above passages were taken from the stoppi ng point of chapter three, part one. After finishing reading this book and then overtaking back through it, I found these passages very ironic in regards to how the story eventually ended. Okonkwo believed that because he was such a fierce fighter, he could conquer anything life threw at him. However, it was his fierce, proud, rubbish attitude that was his demise in the face of uncontrollable circumstances in the end. Okonkwo believed that war and brute fighting would fix everything. He was a proud and stubborn man unendingly struggling to improve his standing in the tribal community. Okonkwo also had eager pride for his tribe and way of life. He believed it was the right way of life and not to be questioned. Everyone was supposed to fear war with Umofia due to their fierce warriors and greatness in battle. When the white men not only did not fear them, but openly threatened the tribal way of life, Okonkwo disposed(p) to handle the situation the only way he knew how. He cute to got to war against the new white invaders, chasing them from tribal lands and ending the threat of unlike ways of life. The passage ends with, it is more difficult and more bitter when a man fails alone.