Abstract:

Mostly everyone gets failure once in life but sometimes failure becomes hard for a strong man. Many people have taken steps of suicide in the past but reasons behind its always different. From God to normal human being many have committed suicide but why? We have to assume with various points of view, here I am going to tell you about Okonkvo, who is the protagonist of the African novel ‘Things Fall Apart.’ How he becomes stronger and in the end he faced failure. 

Key words: Strong, failure, suicide.

We consider the word ‘Suicide’ as a sin or it is a step of weaker person, then what about Lord Ram? In the Ramayana mentioned about Jalsamadhi of Ram.

“શ્રીમદ્વાલ્મીકીય રામાયણ ખંડ દ્વિતીય 107 સર્ગ”

-વિસૃજ્ય લક્ષ્મણલક્ષ્મણ રામો દુઃખશોકસમન્વિતઃ|

પુરોધસં મંત્રિણશ્વ નૈગમાં શ્વેદમ્બરવીત્ ||૧||

-અદ્ય રાજયેડભિષેક્ષ્યામિ ભરતં ધર્મવત્સલમ્|

અયોધ્યાયાઃ પતિં વિરં તતો યાસ્યામ્યહં વનમ્ ||૨||

-પ્રવેશયત સમ્ભારાન્ મા ભૂત્ કાલાત્યયો તથા|

અધૈવાહં  ગમિષ્યામિ લક્ષ્મણેન ગતાં ગતિમ્ ||૩||

110 સર્ગ

પિતામહવચઃ શ્રુત્વા વિનિશ્વિત્ત્ય મહામતિઃ|

વીવેશ વૈષ્ણવં તેજઃ સશરીર: સહાનુજ ||૧૨||

Lord Rama had to punish Lakshmana as it was decided with time because he entered in the forbidden place. Rama was very saddened by the abandonment of Lakshmana but he took this step to save his religion from the words of Vasishta and others. Lakshmana held his breath and committed suicide on the banks of the river Sariyu and Ram became sad and grief stricken and a few days later he takes Jalsamadhi in the Sariyu River.

Revolutionary Icon:-

There are many examples in Indian history whereby we find that many people have accepted death in order to gain freedom but they did not accept defeat.

Azad:

Chandrasekhar was the great freedom fighter of the Indian freedom movement .He joined Gandhiji’s disobedience movement. They were arrested and presented to a judge, where he showed his name as Azad, his father’s name as Freedom and Jail as his residence. The voice of a young man and his fearless answer were staggering. He played an important role in the freedom struggle and encouraged the youth to get freedom from Britishers. Azad vowed that he would never been caught and that the British government would not be able to hang him. To fulfill this vow, he shot himself in the park on February 27, 1931 and sacrificed his life for the motherland.

Sane Guruji:

Pandurang Sadashiv left his education and started to propagate the message of Satyagraha and Civil Disobedience Movement. At that time he was leading various freedom activities in Maharashtra so he became famous with the title of Sane Guruji. He imprisoned many times in Dhule jail and then transferred in Nasik jail. He was deeply saddened by the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. Sane Guruji was brave but mentally broken by this incident and after sometimes he committed suicide.These are examples taken from true events of Indian Freedom Fighting Movement

Intellectual Personalities:

Virginia Woolf filled her pockets with stones and jumped into the River Ouse. Sylvia Plath committed suicide by putting her head in the oven of her London home, while the gas was left on. Ernest Hemingway committed suicide by shooting himself in the mouth with a shotgun. Yukio Mishima planned his death for more than a year, a traditional form of Japanese suicide ‘seppuku’ or also known as ‘harakiri’.

All of these people were mentally strong and lived a good life.It may possible that relationships, personal life vs. professional life, society, excessive intellectualism orthe chances of falling apart come after fame or the future looks bleak,they tend to commit suicide because of the depression or fear. What is the reason for committing suicide and the thoughts of the mind that come before it; we don’t know about it but it can be assumed and ultimately various assumptions allow us to reach at any point.  Social status, financial issues, family and personal relationships, fame and high standard of living become plus points for living a life and at the same time they also become minus points as well, so when they fall from height then it’s become hard to handle the situation for them.

Many people are committing suicide but when a strong or brave man commits suicide, the reasons are different. In this research paper, I will try to address the issues about the suicide of the protagonist from the novel “Things Fall Apart”. Chinua introduced us to a strong man, named Okonkwo. Along with the potrayal of Okonkwo, this work is also helps us in understanding the culture of Igbo society, people’s lives and especially how it shapes thought process the human minds which seems different from one person to another.People obeyed orders of white missionary but Okonkwo did not because he lived life as a leader. Chinua has shown victory of the white people with suicide of strong man in the novel “Things Fall Apart”. 

Chinua Achebe (Nigerian Novelist, Poet, and Critic)

Chinua was raised in the large village of Ogidi, one of the first centers of Anglican missionary work in Eastern Nigeria, and is a graduate of University College, Ibadan. Isaiah Okafo Achebe is the father of Chinua, his father has accepted Christian religion first in the Ogidi so obviously it is like crossing a road, he may havefaced critical situations at home but then also he represented the culture of Igbo people. Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe’s masterpiece has been published in fifty different languages and has sold more than two million copies in the United States since its original publication in 1959. In 2007 he won the International Man Booker Prize.

Things Fall Apart:

In 1958, Achebe made a splash and flash with the publication of his first novel: Things Fall Apart. It is the world’s most widely read African novel. In this novel it can be found, the conflict between native African culture and the influence of white Christian missionaries and the colonial government in Nigeria. Chinua Achebe had written Culture of Nigerian people, Gender and Tradition in Things Fall Apart. Achebe wants to inform readers about the value of Nigerian culture as an African. Things Fall Apart provides readers with an insight of Igbo society and culture right before the white missionaries’ invasion on their land Umuofia. The invasion of the colonizing force threatens to change almost every aspect of Igbo society; from religion, traditional gender roles and relations, family structure to trade.

The villagers don’t know how to react to the sudden cultural changes that the missionaries threaten to change with their new political structure and institutions. The leader of the Umuofia was on exile and during this time unexpected arrival of white missionaries becomes painful for villagers. It was hard to accept everything as per their choice but at a time villagers haven’t an option so they have to accept and missionaries become powerful and they made power position in Umuofia.

It tells two overlappings, intertwining stories, both of which center onOkonkwo, a “strong man” of an Ibo village in Nigeria. The first of these stories traces Okonkwo’s fall from grace with the tribal world in which he lives, and in its classical purity of line and economical beauty, it provides us with a powerful fable about the immemorial the conflict between the individual and society. The second story, which is as modern as the first is ancient, and which elevates the book to a tragic plane, concerns the clash of cultures and the destruction of Okonkwo’s world through the arrival of aggressive, proselytizing European missionaries. These twin dramas are perfectly harmonized, and they are modulated by awareness capable of encompassing at once the life of nature, human history, and the mysterious compulsions of the soul.

Okonkwo (Protogonist of the Play)

A man of action, powerful, fearless, well-respected member, successful farmer and warrior and renowned as a leader ofhis tribe. Okonkwo overcomes his poor background and achieves great success through wrestling. He held the wrestling record for 7 years. He is loyal to his tribe.

Hereby I am mentioning few points which we can easily co-relate with the suicidal action of self prouded man Okonkwo.

Distance creates by Masculine attitude:

He is always trying to prove his masculine character which is actually the main reason for his own fall. He thinks he has proven his masculinity by beating his wives and son because he fears being thought of being as a weak person. He thinks that his son Nwoye looks like his father and he cannot bear this feeling. This is the main reason why Okonkwo never hesitates to punish or beat Nwoye every time.

Even, one day when Nwoye was cutting the yams, Okonkwo came and gave treatment to Nwoye because of the size of the yams. According to Okonkwo, Nwoye was cutting with the wrong size and said:

“If you split another yam of this

Size, I shall break your jaw”

While converting the natives to Christianity, His desire to hide his emotions for his son actually drove a great distance between father and son. Therefore, during Okonkwo’s exile years, Nwoye converted to Christianity.

The generation gap is one of the most important issues.

Hate towards father:

He hated a lot to his father because he never took the responsibilities of his family. His father was just playing the flute so Okonkwo promises to himself that he will be the opposite of his father, on whom people laughed because he was a loafer and they swore never to lend him any more money because of he never paid back.

Lack of intimacy:

Lack of intimacy is one reason for the falling apart not only for son and father but also for the tribe. Additionally, the masculine character of Okonkwo is another reason for this partition. In the end, Okonkwo has no option and kills himself.

Exile becomes a strong reason for the failure of both:

One day by mistake he killed one boy and as per law he has to live outside from his own village and Okonkwo’s exile was a failure for both himself and his tribe. When Okonkwo returned from exile, he believed that if he had not gone to exile, his tribe wouldn’t be in this situation. In other words, he felt extreme regret for what he had done. His homeland was now a different place anymore. White men made many changes without native support. 

 Okonkwo tries with the support of own people but he not able to give a fight back to missionaries. Once he gets a chance and he broke the church but he arrested by white people and he has paid fines for this action. He was the leader and ruler of the Umofia but now the situation was changed so villagers also start to accept rules and regulations of missionaries. In the last Strong Man, Okonkwo feels alone and failure so may he not able to accept his failure and he commits suicide. 

Conclusion:

It can be said that ultimately there are two reasons behind Suicide. Either it is an easy way to escape from problems or it is a matter of an attitude, for example like suicide of Azad. It depends on the person and their thought process. There are certain situations which may not be acceptable for strong men because they lived their life differently in comparison to others so if they fail, they cannot handle and they take a step towards the end. Sometimes they don’t like to die in poor condition or they don’t like to delegate their self to the enemy. Here in the Things Fall Apart the main character Okonkvo commits suicide in the end because he doesn’t want to accept his life like his father or he doesn’t want to obey the orders of the white missionaries. It can be said that it’s all about his willingness to live life independently or to say his attitude for not surrendering his life to white people lead him towards the suicidal incident.

Works Cited

Achebe, Chinua. About. 22 02 2020 <https://www.facebook.com/pg/ChinuaAchebeAuthor/about >.

Habib, Md Arfat. ” Analyzing the character of Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart.” Academia. 22 02 2020 <https://www.academia.edu/12370094/Analyzing_the_character_of_Okonkwo_in_Things_Fall_Apart>.

Patil, Dr. Sunil. Sane Guruji Sanskar Kendra. 22 02 2020 <http://nmu.ac.in/sgsk/en-us/home.aspx>.

Scheub, Harold. “When A Man Fails Alone.” Jstor (2020): 61.

ભટ્ટ, દ. શ્રીમદ્વાલ્મીકીયરામાયણ . Gorakhpur: Gitapress.

Dhaval D. Diyora

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