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In this day and age suicide is not an effort usually perceived as manliness. Suicide is an effort to end problems without putting an effort to solve them. In the book Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, the character named Okonkwo is obsessed with becoming his own definition of manliness, and prestige; Okonkwo then got fed up and surprisingly committed suicide. Okonkwo’s decision to commit suicide was a cowardly act, because he wanted an easy way out from the ordeal he was going through, he is selfish he rather have his friends and family suffer over him than to suffer himself, and he gave up his hopes and dreams. Okonkwo wanted an easy way out opposed to suffering, which would have been his ideals of manliness. Okonkwo considers his father,
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For all of his desire to be strong, Okonkwo is caught up by the constant fear of being perceived as weak. He is afraid of failure and afraid of being considered weak. This fear drives him to do whatever he can to not become a failure like his father which ironically contributes to his death. While Okonkwo was a strong and important figure in his tribe, he had to keep his reputation that way by making some hard decisions. One of them was when he had to kill Ikemefuna, a young boy from the neighboring tribe. Okonkwo started accepting the decision to kill Ikemefuna because he started to call Okonkwo father. He had to keep his own valor intact and kill the boy to prevent himself from showing any weakness, but deep down, Okonkwo was really upset because of what he did which was ironic, “’When did you become a shivering old woman,' Okonkwo asked himself, 'you, who are known in all the nine villages for your valor in war? How can a man who has killed five men in battle fall to pieces because he has added a boy to their number? Okonkwo, you have become a woman indeed.'" (Achebe 65). He continued to roll downhill when the white man comes to try and convert Okonkwo’s tribe. Okonkwo responds by killing one of the messengers that were sent. This cause Okonkwo's own tribe to question his actions. “"Okonkwo stood looking at the dead man. He knew that Umuofia would not go to war. He knew because they had let the other messengers escape.
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- Suicide
- Things Fall Apart
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- Okonkwo
- Death
- Igbo people
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