Conceptual Analysis Of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart And The Psychosis Causes That Leads To Okonkwo’s Death In Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart”
The novel takes place in Umuofia, a cluster of nine villages on the lower Niger. Umuofia is a powerful clan, skilled in war and with a great population, with proud traditions and advanced social institutions. Okonkwo has risen from nothing to a high position. Through hard work, he has become a great man among his people. He has taken three wives and his barn is full of yams, the staple crop. He rules his family with an iron fist. One day, a neighboring clan commits an offense against Umuofia. To avoid war, the offending clan gives Umuofia one virgin and one young boy. The girl is to become the offended party's new wife. The boy, whose name is Ikemefuna, is to be sacrificed, but not immediately. He lives in Umuofia for three years, and during that time he lives under Okonkwo's roof. He becomes like a part of Okonkwo's family. In particular, Nwoye, Okonkwo's oldest son, loves Ikemefuna like a brother. But eventually the Oracle calls for the boy's death, and a group of men takes Ikemefuna away to kill him in the forest. Okonkwo, fearful of being perceived as soft-hearted and weak, participates in the boy's death. He does so despite the advice of the clan elders. Nwoye is spiritually broken by the event.
Okonkwo is shaken as well, but he continues with his drive to become a lord of his clan. He is constantly disappointed by Nwoye, but he has a great love for his daughter Ezinma, his child by his second wife Ekwefi. Ekwefi has born ten children, but only Ezinma has survived. She loves the girl fiercely. Ezinma is sickly, and sometimes Ekwefi fears that Ezinma, too, will die. Late one night, the powerful Oracle of Umuofia brings Ezinma with her for a spiritual encounter with the earth goddess. Terrified, Ekwefi follows the Oracle at a distance, fearing harm might come to her child. Okonkwo follows, too.
Later, during a funeral for one of the great men of the clan, Okonkwo's gun explodes, killing a boy. In accordance with Umuofia's law, Okonkwo and his family must be exiled for seven years. Okonkwo bears the exile bitterly. Central to his beliefs is faith that a man masters his own destiny. But the accident and exile are proof that at times a man cannot control his own fate, and Okonkwo is forced to start over again without the strength and energy of his youth. He flees with his family to Mbanto, his mother's homeland. There they are received by his mother's family, who treat them generously. His mother's family is headed by Uchendu, Okonkwo's uncle, a generous and wise old man. During Okonkwo's exile, the white man comes to both Umuofia and Mbanto. The missionaries arrive first, preaching a religion that seems mad to the Igbo people. They win converts, but generally, the converts are men of low rank or outcasts. However, with time, the new religion gains momentum. Nwoye becomes a convert. When Okonkwo learns of Nwoye's conversion, he beats the boy. Nwoye leaves home. Okonkwo returns to Umuofia to find the clan sadly changed. The church has won some converts, some of whom are fanatical and disrespectful of clan custom. Worse, the white man's government has come to Umuofia. The clan is no longer free to judge its own; a District Commissioner judges cases in ignorance. He is backed by armed power. During a religious gathering, a convert unmasks one of the clan spirits. The offense is grave, and in response, the clan decides that the church will no longer be allowed in Umuofia. They tear the building down. Soon afterward, the District Commissioner asks the leaders of the clan, Okonkwo among them, to come to see him for a peaceful meeting. The leaders arrive and are quickly seized. In prison, they are humiliated and beaten, and they are held until the clan pays a heavy fine.
After a release of the men, the clan calls a meeting to decide whether they will fight or try to live peacefully with the whites. Okonkwo wants war. During the meeting, court messengers come to order the men to break up their gathering. The clan meetings are the heart of Umuofia's government; all decisions are reached democratically, and interference with this institution means the end of the last vestiges of Umuofia's independence. Enraged, Okonkwo kills the court messenger. The other court messengers escape, and because the other people of his clan did not seize them, Okonkwo knows that his people will not choose war. His act of resistance will not be followed by others. Embittered and grieving for the destruction of his people's independence, and fearing the humiliation of dying under white law, Okonkwo returns home and hangs himself.
The psychosis causes that leads to Okonkwo’s death in Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart”
The psychoanalysis is the study of the human mind that was propounded by Sigmund Freud according to him, the human heart is made up of three chambers thus: id, ego, and the superego. The id is the irrational and uncontrolled part of the human mind in Okonkwo.
Achebe portrays the id in Okonkwo as an over-serious and ambitious in the text as a man who observed and protect the culture and tradition of the Igbo society where he belongs.
The id is seen in the text when Okonkwo beats up his wife because she could not provide him with his food on time, the action of Okonkwo beating his wife was irrational and was done unconsciously without him thinking about the consequences of his action against the “week of peace in Umofia”.
Achebe shows the id in Okonkwo when Okonkwo mistakenly kill the son of Obofi during the burial ceremony of Eze Olu with his son. This action leads to the destruction of his property and he was sent to exile to his mother’s village as a way of punishing him for his sin, during the time he was banished from his village, the white missionaries came to Umofia and dominated the village of Umofia. As a brave and hard-working man, he survived even in his mothers land.
When he finally returned to Umofia, he joined the council meeting, unknowing to him that the white missionaries have invaded the village, during the meeting of a white man messenger join them in the meeting, Okonkwo carelessly kills the white man on the cultural base that no stranger was allowed to enter their meeting.
He thought he was doing good and thought he was supported by his clan’s men but unfortunately, they was no unity in the land, things have truly fallen apart because of white man’s power who has to overrule the traditional rule, instead of him being applauded by his clan men, he was blamed by his people, they turn away from him and he was left alone, thereby letting him face the full rode of the land, Okonkwo as a warrior, he did not want to answer any question or suffer from the hands of the white men decided to hang himself to avoid humiliation by the colonial masters.
In conclusion, Achebe portrays the enemy that faces Okonkwo as the product of the id which is seen as the irrational mind that can lead anyone to do things that are not good in society. Okonkwo’s death was caused by his own id, which was not properly balanced by his own super-ego.
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