ody was found dangling from a tree. All of the previously explained factors can be attributed to the final tragedy of Onkonkwo, but I believe that the state that Umuofia was in when Onkonkwo returned from exile was the final straw. Onkonkwo had such pride in Umuofia that seeing people abandoning their gods and daily routines was like torture. I think that he equated the people who converted with being like his father, having no goals, or pride in being a man. He rationalized these people who acted with such “disrespect” as being people that Umuofia wouldn’t want in their society, and so it was no problem with them leaving. Onkonkwo and others within Umuofia did not realize, however, that it was those people who made up their village, and without them, the great land of Umuofia was becoming obsolete and cowardly. When the people of Umuofia decided not to go to war with the white men, Onkonkwo felt like he was the only one who had any sense to him, he felt like he was the only man. That, specifically, was the reason that Onkonkwo decided to take his own life after killing one of the white messengers. He wanted to die a man, not a coward woman like man.I the village of Umuofia fell apart in another way. When the white missionaries arrived, the villagers did not take them very seriously. They refused to see the missionaries as a threat and this led to their demise. However, because of the strength of the west, the village’s falling apart might have been inevitable. I think that if they had saw the missionaries as a threat from the beginning, that would have been the prevention of Onkonkwo’s death. He would have been right by Umuofia’s side fighting against the evils of these new beliefs. Very few civilizations, if any, were able to withstand the threat of Westernization. It was a force that was too powerful and sophisticated for such common people to fight. Achebe’s book shows how this We...
