Sanai Williams: Things Fall Apart, the Fall of a Hero (Outside Reading)

     In high school I had the choice to read a book called Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. From taking this class, I have been reminded of so many parallels to myth and the hero's journey.

    In the book, the protagonist is a man named Okonkwo. He is the definition of a tough, strong man who rules his family with an iron fist in attempts to make them strong and successful like he is. Okonkwo has but one biggest fear; being weak and dishonorable like his father. He hated everything about his father due to his shameful death, including qualities like showing love, affection, and having fun.

    In the story, Okonkwo's journey involves raising his kids. He has daughters, a son, and an adopted son from an enemy clan. The call was when he had to take a boy in because he originally did not want to, but when he found that the boy was making his own son act more manly (mean to women) he was overjoyed.

    Eventually due to religion in the country, they called for the adopted boy's execution, and Okonkwo had to do it by his own hand. He was sad and frail and couldn't understand why. Eventually he started to treat his son horribly until he left the family. And when colonists arrived and humiliated him in front of his tribe, he killed one of the men, went home, and hung himself in the backyard.

    To me, Okonkwo's story in a heroic internal battle that I believe he could have won. He faced mainly blunders in how he treated others including how he felt about his dad that changed him permanently. He accepted the call, tried his best, and failed to protect the ones he loved due to his perception on what being a strong successful man. The opposite of what his father was, what Okonkwo was, created the fall of his family, his mental health, and his own life. Some heroic stories do not end well after all, but it taught me a valuable lesson, a valuable myth, of not letting trauma change you for the worse.