Saturday, March 12, 2016
Okonkwo's death
so we talked about Okonkwo's suicide in class, and we came up with multiple reasons to why he took his life. I, personally, think that he took his life so that the last seconds of his life were in his hands. While reading the book we saw that Okonkwo is always a control freak. I see why he would have taken his life, since the commissioner and missionaries were destroying his culture. Okonwo didn't want to have to subdue to their ways so to have his control he took his own life.
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I kind of think that the reason he killed himself is due to lost hope. When he killed that British officer in the end of the novel, and all his fellow clansmen just stood there and did not help fight or even just intervene on his behalf, he said something along the lines of "and then I knew they were not going to fight." Okonkwo tried so hard to get people to realize that the British were honestly destroying their culture, but no one would listen to him. He also lost hope due to the fact that when he returned from exile, he no longer had any of his prosperity that he had when he left. His son, Nwoye, really upset/"betrayed" him when he converted. So, I think that Okonkwo, in part, was definitely trying to take his life before the white men could, but I think it was more so due to the fact that he had no hope left.
Along the lines of lost hope, I think that he had lost hope that the tribe would survive. In his eyes, there was no one left who cared to defend or uphold tradition. Even the most masculine Ibo warriors became weak, or "womanly" towards the end. He feared for the ancestors and that no one would be left to worship them. I also think that he had lost all of his power among the tribe, which is also something he really valued. I can also see why he would want to take is fate into his own hands and commit suicide, because that gave him the power over his future, not the British. I think that you can argue several reasons to why he killed himself, as I don't think just one reason went into that decision.
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