Yaniv
Schiller 10/31/96
Mrs. C.
English Essay
Why the Name
'Things Fall Apart'
There was a man
who dreamed as a child of being well known and respected throughout his village
and neighboring villages. This man, Okonko, worked hard at his goal, and he
achieved it. Okonko, a man with great strength and personality, had achieved
his goal to become rich and famous, a privilege that was unseen before in his
family. Although Okonko reached his goal at an early age, his life began to
Fall Apart when tragic episodes took place.
One can see that Okonko's life first began to
fall apart when Ikemefuna, a captive who stayed at Okonko's home, was killed.
Okonko had thought of Ikemefuna as one of his own sons. He was deeply saddened
when he was killed. One can see the effects on Okonko from that event. First
Okonko was unable to sleep for the following three days. He also kept on
getting drunk, and that was a sign that he was depressed. This incident also
had a long-term effect on Okonko. From then on his family would look at him as
if it were his fault that Ikemefuna is dead. This episode can be seen as an
event where Okonko looses some faith from his family. This corresponds to
Okonko loosing faith in his father.
Another important occurrence where one can see
that Okonko's life falls apart was when he was thrown out of the clan for a few
years. From this episode one can see that Okonko's hopes dreams have begun to
fall apart. His hopes of being a rich and popular individual had drifted away
with this upsetting incident. Okonko had no longer had his farm or animals.
Also Okonko lost faith with most of his friends. This goes to show that Okonko
lost faith with his friends, like his father lost faith with his.
Another episode that showed the downfall in
Okonko's life was when Nwoye, his oldest and favorite son, converted to the
white mans religion, Christianity. To Okonko this was very upsetting because
Nwoye was his eldest son, and Okonko had the greatest expectations for him.
When news came to him that Nwoye was among the white men, one could have
foreseen that only no good was coming to Okonko after that.
By glancing at
Okonko's life, one could see that the title Things Fall Apart fits perfectly
with the book. Starting from the episode with Ikemefuna, one can see that
Okonko's life will fall apart. Then, later on in the book, when Okonko was
thrown out of his clan, one could have been sure that Okonko's hopes of being
rich and famous were ruined. After all that, with the incident of Nwoye, one
could see that Okonko's life was a total failure. Any speculator could see that
Okonko had not achieved his goals, but
instead, by the end of his life, he had become a failure like his father.
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