Okonkwo the Tragic Hero and Ibo Society in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Introduction

"Things Fall Apart" by Achebe is a very interesting novel. It was published in (1958) and according to some it is amazing for its vivid image of Igbo humanity at the end of the nineteenth century (Carroll, 34). When the British colonial experts set down in this South-eastern Nigerian territory, they discovered a persons, highly "decentralized, segmented" and in a sophisticated grade of republicanism. At the time that Things Fall Apart tints, the Igbos were in the full vigour of their customary way of life, unperplexed by the present and without nostalgia for the past. (Carroll, 35) Christianity had not made its lasting effect in the psyche of the people. The Igbos were dispersed communal assembly without any apparently characterised tribal affiliations and ethnic consciousness, and no large centralized organisations under mighty potentates. There was no need for balance of power, for power was split up amidst many little groups. There were no renowned foremost tribal conflicts and grave political confrontations and inter-tribal rivalries. The inclination was in the direction of dispersal of power, rather than of intensifying it in a couple of hungry hands.

Igbo Culture

Thus amidst the Igbo persons, the communal structure was made up of some little localized groups, where farthest individualism provided way to communal authority. The basic communal unit was patrilineal, and each unit used by a aggregate made up of some subpatriarchal units. Each aggregate comprised of one-by-one family flats including the expanded families and their one-by-one homes. Several mixtures made up a town, and some villages made up a town. A dwelling might comprise of some sub homes. As juvenile men increased and wed, they made their own families and constructed their own dwellings inside the bigger homes. Thus was evolved a convoluted mesh of connections which may be unintelligible to European notions of one-by-one self-consciousness, and introspection.

Since Christianity had not made a large inroad, the Igbos performed their customary belief which accepted the reality of a Supreme Being Chukwu, (God), Chineke (God the Creator), a hierarchy, or a new-work of secondary deities. God (Chukwu) was renowned to command fertility and creation, while his domestics made up of secondary deities, encompassing the strong Ala (earth-goddess), aided man in his day to day activities. 7 The Igbo man was a highly indiviudalistic, expansive, broad-minded, and forward-looking person. He was as open to new concepts as his humanity was to endeavouring out new life methods and new trials in living.

Communal life is highlighted universal in the novel. In holding with the Igbo custom of deep devout fervour, the individual characteristics in Achebe Things Fall Apart are engaged in the communal rituals, and the life of each feature supposes exceptional implication inside the communal rituals. Ritualism is spectacularly offered, and every constituent of the community takes part in this communal drama. The town meetings, which run through the innovative, make it much more very shrewd and unique. Music performed a important function in the communal ...