roman’s blog

Whew, what a crazy ending! I never saw it coming. Its funny how at first I really didn’t like Okonkwo because of his over-masculinity, which dictated how he treated everyone, but now and especially towards the end, I really began to sympathize with him. Even as Achebe began to give him less and less personal attention, which I felt was to broaden the other conflicts in the book and lay the ground-work for the conflict with the missionaries, I still felt like his concerns about his village were very understandable. From my perspective, I was in agreement with Okonkwos woes in ‘no one will fight.’ I also think his character does act as a foil against the rest of the village in exposing their lack of spirit to take immediate action, or perhaps the common, ‘lack of understanding’ of the entire situation. But also, he highlights the importance of identity among these ‘white men’ that is, to preserve their culture. To him this meant: worshipping their ancestor’s gods and maintaining their own traditions. It also seems like Okonkwo had better insight into the future and broader understanding of the intentions of the colonizing forces, compared to the villagers around him who only heard of the ‘rumors’ of massacre, but where skeptical.  All in all, I really wish Okonkwo didn’t kill himself, but I can understand his position because he saw no hope in sight and this was his last resort. I do wish he went on a personal killing spree aside from the one man he killed, which would have been entertaining and comforting, but probably wouldn’t have left the reader with an attachment to the main character, as it did in the end.