Things Fall Apart II

Hello, Cynthia here!

Well to start off i would definitly agree that irony is a reacurring theme throughout part II of Things Fall Apart. With everything that happened to Okonkwo, it seems that no matter how hard he tries, the man cannot catch a break.

Okonkwo had to go off to live at his motherland because he accidently killed a dead clansman's son. The same man who followed the clan's rules, was now a victim of its weird policies. Had the murder been intentional, the outcome would have been different. As if having to flee Umuofia was not bad enough, a few years after being in his motherland, Okonkwo and the Mbanta tribe had to deal with the arrival of the "white men". The whit men were missionaries determined to convert everyone to Christianity. To top it all off, they managed to convert Nwoye which led to Okonkwo disowning him. In Okonkwo's eyes his son was weak, as weak as his father who amounted to nothing and held no titles at the time of his death. The irony comes in the fact that Okonkwo worked so hard to have a better future than his father and in the end his own children were showing the same characteristics as his father. This way of thinking on Okonkwo's part was beautifully illustrated by Achebe on pages 152 and 153.

Going back to a previous comment, I also found it interesting how quickly time passed while Okonkwo and his family were in Mbanta. With each chapter another year would pass and things would change drastically. Okonkwo even had new children.

Moving on to another idea, i could not help but think back to history class as I read this part of the novel. The whole part about the "white men" coming just remind me of imperialism and missionary work. I found it every interesting how the two religions clashed as the tribe's people and the "white men" interacted. The beliefs of the two groups were so vastly different causing many problems. Some of the tribe's people began to see that maybe their beliefs and customs (such as killing twin children) were probably barbaric and not exactly correct.

Although I do not agree with many of the tribe's customs, I still did not like the fact that they were being converted to Christianity beacuse each person should maintain their roots and own beliefs.

I am very excited to find out how the story ends in the third part of the novel.