I just finished reading Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. If you have read the book, you know that Okonkwo is a stubborn and proud man who values honor and to be regarded ”as a man”. Yet in the end he hangs himself thus disgracing himself and his family. This was a big surprise to me, as I always assumed that he would rather choose to die honorably in battle than by giving up, as such.
I am pondering the reason for this. Did he take his life because he knew that he would be imprisoned and therefore could never achieve his dream of becoming the clan leader? My gut tells me he would not act in this way. Could the author have felt it necessary for Okonkwo to commit suicide as a means to portray some kind of deeper meaning? The only one I can think of is as a metaphor for the ”death” of the indigenous culture, but for that to be the case he could just as well have died fighting for his life, which again, would more befit his character.
What do you think?
Thanks for reading
by Separate_Choice945