Unfortunately for Okonkwo, the beginning of the end was nearing.During the funeral ceremony for Ezeudu, Okonkwo's gun exploded, killingEzeudu's 16 year old son. Ironically, Okonkwo had committed the female portionof this particular crime and was banished to his mother's homeland for sevenyears. This banishment filled Okonkwo with sorrow. His worst nightmare wasbecoming reality. Okonkwo cannot see the purposeful balance in the tribalarrangements by which the female principle is felt to be simultaneously weak andsustaining. (Ravenscroft 13) It is also during this exile that the people ofthe Mbanta allowed the first Christian missionaries to establish a church, winover people of the tribe, and defy the powers of their gods. Okonkwo's own sonwas one of the first to convert to the new religion. This infuriated Okonkwo.Unfortunately for Okonkwo, his homecoming wasn't what he thought itwould be. He found that the missionaries had established a church there too."The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion.We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won ourbrothers, and our clan can no longer act as one. He has put a knife on thethings that held us together and we have fallen apart." (Achebe 124-5)For Okonkwo, his return was not the triumphant homecoming that heanticipated. He had returned to find that the warlike Umuofia people had becomesoft like women. The climax of the novel comes when Enoch, a converted Ibo,interrupted the annual worship ceremony of the earth goddess. By doing so,Enoch had killed an ancestral spirit, and Umuofia, and its very foundation, wasthrown into chaos. Infuriated, Okonkwo kills a messenger of the white man, sentto stop a meeting. Unfortunately for Okonkwo, the leaders of Umuofia are toodivided to follow Okonkwo's warlike lead. (Ravenscroft 14-5) Okonkwo thencommits the ultimate abomination, he kills himself.Okonkwo hung himself because h...
