Psychology of Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe - Essay Example

Psychology of Okonkwo in “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe: Hypermasculinism from inner fears of failure and womanhood May 11, 2012 Abstract Introduction In Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe (1994) dispelled the myth of the ignorant African savage. Achebe (1994) told the story of Okonkwo, who is an ideal example of a leader from a proud, independent, and intelligent, traditional African culture. Okonkwo’s greatest weakness resulted from his obsession with his father’s failures. He detested the possibility that he would turn into his father, Unoka. Okonkwo believed that Unoka represented failure, because he died without titles. Okonkwo also detested that he and his villagers depicted Unoka as a woman, because of his laziness, cowardice, and love for music and storytelling. This paper aimed to show that Okonkwo’s fear of being a failure can be rooted from his cultural, social, religious, and personal beliefs. The social and political structures of his society bestowed significant pride and dignity to the strong and autonomous males of the clan. Okonkwo, however, went overboard with his personal fixation on manliness. He anxiously feared being a woman and a failure, which turned him into a hypermasculine man with no respect for women and other forms of masculinities. His fear of emasculation ironically emasculated him further, because he lost his ability to exhibit the attitudes of tolerance and compassion, which ultimately led to his loss of both his masculinity and life. Fear of Emasculation through the Existence of “Other” Masculinities Okonkwo came from an African tribe that possessed a fierce sense of pride in their culture and history. In “The Igbo People – Origins and History,” Slattery (1999) explored the history of the Igbo. She believed that because of lack of additional evidence, the most plausible roots of the Igbo came from the “core area” of Igboland, where diverse immigrant communities from the north and west lived in the border of this core area, since the ninth century. Owerri, Orlu and Okigwi formed this core area belt, and the people thought they had no tradition that they came from anywhere else. Slattery (1999) believed that migration came from all directions, and soon, a homogenized Igbo culture developed. Furthermore, she narrated that during the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries, more people entered the Igbo land. The newcomers often differentiated themselves from the original dwellers. The native Igbo practiced “geographical marginality, the institution of kingship, a hierarchical title system and the amosu tradition (witchcraft),” which the newcomers deemed as “less cultured” (Slattery, 1999). Despite these differences, the Igbo, in general, had a superior sense of their culture. For them, they were better warriors and leaders than other tribes. This sense of superiority seeped into Okonkwo’s personality. Like his contemporaries, he attributed high values of courage and cunning to the titled male members of his society. This strength also became his weaknesses, because he became intolerant of other forms of masculinities. Political and social structures of the Igbo embedded a high sense of self-importance for titled men like Okonkwo. In “Igbo Government and Social Structure,” Slattery (1998) provided details about the political and structural system of the Igbo. She described that the “basic unit of Igbo life was the village group, and the most universal institution was the role of the family head.” The family head position usually went to the oldest man of the oldest generation. He had authority in settling family disputes and controlling the channels of communication with significant ancestors. Slattery (1998) further emphasized that titles organized the social structure of the Igbo. A hierarchy of ascending titles ordered the significance of male members in the village (Slattery, 1998). People paid for these titles too, which served as a kind of social security, since those who attained titles paid a fee, and then were entitled to have a share in the payments of those who later got their titles (Slattery, 1998). Several intense rituals were required before male members got their titles; thus, having a title symbolized strong character and personal success (Slattery, 1998). Though highly hierarchical, the political process of the Igbo followed democracy to some extent. Free male members of the village discussed vital issues that affected them in general (Slattery, 1998). As for social beliefs and practices, male household members had higher status than female ones (Slattery, 1998). Adults sought for a married life, and men were expected to take many wives, because having numerous wives indicated wealth and success (Slattery, 1998). Wives has ranking according to the order in which they married the common husband (Slattery, 1998). Seniority by birth also existed, where the “first male and female children of the domestic group, irrespective of the ranking of their mothers, were given special status, and occupied very important and responsible social positions in the family” (Slattery, 1998). Okonkwo grew up in a highly socially stratified community. This community taught him that titles are important to manhood. Okonkwo, however, became quite arrogant against non-titled men. During one of the kindred meetings, Okonkwo silenced one man, Osugo, by telling him: “This meeting is for men” (Achebe, 1994, p.26). By saying this, Okonkwo shamed a man by calling him a “woman.” The villagers, however, sided with Osugo, because their democratic structure called for respect for every free male mad. They stressed that even though Umuofia cherished Okonkwo’s achievements, every man has a right to speak for himself. Those who cannot respect another man cannot be respected in this form of egalitarian outlook. Masculinity used to be expressed through traditional virtues, particularly titles, virility, and strength, but that changed when the economic structure of the village changed too. The economic development, which trading with the Europeans provided, had affected the thinking and actions of several Igbo people. Trading with white people soon influenced some of their leaders and members to become supporters of European colonization and imperialism. Slattery (1999) narrated that the first contact between Igboland and Europe occurred during the mid-fifteenth century with the influx of the Portuguese. During the beginning of the nineteenth century, however, British integrated “aggressive trading with aggressive imperialism” (Slattery, 1999). They took the African hinterland and managed it through the British Niger Company (Slattery, 1999). In 1928, for the first time in the history of their people, the Igbo men had been forced to pay taxes (Slattery, 1999). In “Postcolonial responses to the missionaries: Things Fall Apart,” Bleakley (1998) explored the diverse responses of the Igbo to the white missionaries. The people of Umuofia, during this time, could not formulate a united opinion of the whites (Bleakley, 1998). Bleakley (1998) asserted that the natives remained “ambiguous,” because some of them enjoyed the wealth and value of white trade. Still, they showed discomfort for the existence of white intrusion and “indirect rule” through the white District Officer (Bleakley, 1998). Bleakley (1998) hypothesized that a possible reason for this ambiguity and hesitation came from the absence of a language that expressed white intervention. Acculturating Nigeria, for instance, required removing native dialects, which resulted to the “loss of indigenous voice” (Bleakley, 1998). This can be inferred from the novel’s ending, which stated “even now they have not found the mouth with which to tell of their suffering” (Bleakley, 1998). In this sense, Okonkwo had enjoyed the traditional powers that his society gave him. The new society of the white people, however, threatened to emasculate him through the removal of traditional power structures. The fear of losing what he “is” led him to killing the white man’s messenger through chopping of his head. Fear of Womanhood Traditional religion supported the social hierarchy that Okonwko believed in and protected. In “Religion and the Igbo People,” Slattery (2001) illustrated the religious beliefs and practices of the Igbo. She stressed that the Igbo were a deeply religious people who believe in a benevolent creator, commonly called as Chukwu, who constructed the visible universe (uwa). In opposition to the forces of good is agbara, which means spirit or supernatural being (Slattery, 2001). Aside from the natural level of the universe, the Igbo also believe in the existence of another plane, where the spiritual forces, the alusi, exist (Slattery, 2001).The alusi are minor gods and can provide blessing or destruction to people, depending on certain conditions (Slattery, 2001). They reprove social offences and those who unintentionally disobey their privileges (Slattery, 2001). The responsibility of the diviner is to understand the wishes of the alusi, while the role of the priest is to pacify them with sacrifices (Slattery, 2001). The Igbo also believed that each person also has a “personalized providence,” which hailed from Chukwu, and returns as chi at the time of their deaths (Slattery, 2001). Slattery (2001) also explained the funeral ceremonies and burials of the Igbo people. They kill those who they considered as “shameful” to the tribe, such as twins and other multiple births, children who were born with teeth (or whose upper teeth developed first), babies born with feet first, boys with only a single testicle, and lepers (Slattery, 2001). Okonkwo held the same strict religious and social beliefs of his people. He feared women’s spiritual powers, however, though he preferred to overlook them by asserting his masculinity over the women of his household. For him, the status quo society supported his own social status as well. The same status quo had given high value to his hypermasculinity that he intended to protect at all causes. The fear of womanhood had primarily driven Okonkwo’s fears. The coming of Christianity in his village represented the coming of a woman’s religion. The arrival of Christian missionaries turned out to be one of the steps that divided the Igbo tribe, which reflected Okonkwo’s beliefs in the hierarchical social structure of his native society. Bleakley (1998) argued that the missionaries were the primary causes of “disruption” in the Igbo’s society. He believed that Achebe did not want to teach superiority of the natives over the Europeans, and instead, he asserted the importance of learning from and respecting each other’s religious beliefs. Furthermore, Bleakley (1998) emphasized that Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart to tell the facts about African existence without judgment. He said that Achebe aimed to achieve the “illumination of the complicated truth of African existence (and) a concrete insight into the reality of their existence” (Conch 6. 1-2, 1974, p.19). In his novel, Achebe did not attempt to make “excuses” or “apologies for African existence” (Bleakley, 1998). Okonkwo relied on the traditional African existence that depended on strong patriarchal leadership. He was not willing to relinquish his leadership to a woman’s religion, or women, in general. The rise of the new religion divided the village and Okonkwo’s family. Bleakley (1998) dissected the insidious nature of Christian conversion. For him, the missionaries did not convert the efulefu, whom the Igbo thought as “worthless, empty men” (Achebe, 1994, p.143), in order to promote an egalitarian society. Instead, the missionaries particularly selected these people to divide the Igbo clan, since the efulefu who “despises and gradually undermines the older ones. Thus a fatal weakness is introduced at the very heart of the clan, which is the unit of its customary life” (Seven African Writers, p.64 cited in Bleakley, 1998). Bleakley (1998) also depicted that the natives did not fully accept the foreign religion. Nwoye did not believe in the Christian teachings per se, but was attracted to “the poetry of the new religion” (Achebe, 1994, p.147). When Nneka left her family to join the white man’s church, her family thought that it proved to be “good riddance,” since she always gave birth to twins, whom their society considered as abomination to earth (Achebe, 1994, p. 151). Though they did not embrace the fundamental beliefs of Christianity, it was enough to break Okonkwo and his tribe. Okonkwo feared women’s inner powers too, which threatened to emasculate him. O’ Neill (n.d.) explored a feminist reading of Things Fall Apart in “Things Fall Apart: The Gender Debate.” He argued that Achebe did not aim to promote misogyny or be indifferent to the feminist movement. Instead, Achebe tried to “accurately represent” African society as much as possible. Achebe might have disagreed with the low regard for women in African culture, but he balanced women’s inferior social status with their higher and important religious functions. O’Neill (n.d.) stated: “Nneka- mother is supreme. As a caretaker, as a comforter, woman, or what the notion of woman denotes is held in high esteem.” Furthermore, O’Neill (n.d.) argued that Okonkwo’s fear of becoming a woman like his father killed him. He stressed that Okonkwo developed “an overbearing masculinity” that rendered him unable of accepting different forms of masculinities. As a result, even when he loved Ikemefuna, he hit the first blow on the boy, since he loathed feeling tender feelings of love that only a woman could feel. Okonkwo feared being a woman with feelings, so he decided to end it by being a man. And being a man meant killing Ikemefuna with his own machete. Fears of Failure and Its Failures The irony of Okonkwo’s life is that because of his intense fear of failure, he ultimately failed to become a humane human being. His fear of emasculation ironically emasculated him further, because he lost his ability to exhibit the attitudes of tolerance and compassion, which ultimately leads to his loss of both his masculinity and life. Okonkwo believed that gentleness is a weakness, and so he managed his family with a hard hand, which became the greatest obstacle for him in becoming a good husband and father. He forced his family to work as hard as he did, especially during planting season. His family did not complain, however, because they feared him. Furthermore, Okonkwo believed that: “...the only thing worth demonstrating was strength” (Achebe, 1994, p. 28). His father symbolized tenderness and for Okonkwo, it resulted to the former’s womanhood. Okonkwo decided that to show outward loving emotion to his family constituted anti-masculinity. Okonkwo also had no patience, because he thought that a real man settled his disputes through strength and violence. He did not contain his anger when the messenger from the white people came, and he instantly killed him. Again, because Okonkwo feared to be emasculated once the whites imprisoned him, he committed suicide. His pride did not consider slavery and imprisonment as a worthy end, even when he knew that after suicide, his remains would be treated “like a dog” (Achebe, 1994, p. 208). Thus, his overbearing masculinity made him a man with too much fears and no tender emotions, and this pushed him to precipice of his death. Conclusion Fear of failure primarily drove Okonkwo’s life. His cultural, social, religious, and personal beliefs supported his fears. The social and political structures of his society attributed high regard to strong and autonomous males of the clan. Okonkwo, however, developed obsession with his masculinity. His personal revulsion for his father’s womanliness consumed his humaneness. The novel shows that the more that Okonkwo avoided being emasculated, the more he emasculated his being. The more masculinity he expressed, the more he detached himself from feelings of tolerance and compassion. Without these feelings, he inadvertently lost his sense of humanity and his life. References Achebe, C. (1994). Things fall apart. New York: Anchor Books. Bleakley, R. (1998, May 4). Postcolonial responses to the missionaries: Things Fall Apart. Retrieved from http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofEnglish/imperial/nigeria/respmiss.htm O’Neill, D. (no date). Things fall apart: The gender debate. Retrieved from http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofEnglish/imperial/nigeria/achebe-gender.htm Slattery, K. (2001, August 15). Religion and the Igbo people. Retrieved from http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofEnglish/imperial/nigeria/religion.htm Slattery, K. (1999, November 8). The Igbo people – origins and history. Retrieved from http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofEnglish/imperial/nigeria/origins.htm Slattery, K. (1998, May 1). Igbo government and social structure. Retrieved from http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofEnglish/imperial/nigeria/govt.htm Read More