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Things Fall Apart, a la Shmoop. Okonkwo[1] is one manly guy.

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Really manly.

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That all you got?

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He’s spent his entire life trying hard not to be like his father, who he thought was

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lazy and cowardly.

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So Okonkwo works hard to be an awesome farmer.

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He wrestles like a champ.

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And he’s a brave leader of his people. But when Okonkwo hangs himself at the end

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of Things Fall Apart....

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…sorry… belated spoiler alert…

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Is he acting as a brave martyr, living up to his manly reputation?

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Or is he being a coward just like his dad? When white missionaries invade the land...

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Okonkwo is ticked off.

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Really ticked off.

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The missionaries are shoving the tribe’s beliefs to the side....

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And replacing them with Christianity.

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Before, the village elders made the laws.

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Now, it’s a foreign Queen.

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Okonkwo wants to free his people from this foreign power.

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He tries to rally his tribe to fight...

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But many refuse... Some even join the other team.

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Enraged, Okonkwo even beheads a kotma <<CAHT-muh>>,[2] one of the Africans who collaborate with the

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white men.

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But still his people won’t rise.

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So for the first time in his life Okonkwo purposefully breaks the laws of his community...

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By committing suicide.

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Sounds like a bold move, right? He bravely faces Death rather than submitting

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to the white man…

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And dies on his own terms… just like he lived.

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On the other hand...

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Is it possible that Okonkwo kills himself because he’s afraid of change?

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Should he have had the courage to adjust his warrior ethics?

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To lead his people toward a peaceful compromise with the missionaries?

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Or should he at least have stayed in the world of the living to fight some more?

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He lived his whole life afraid of the ghost of his father...

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Afraid he’d turn out to be a coward just like him.

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But in the end, did he do the cowardly thing?

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Shmoop amongst yourselves.

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[1]y particular pronunciation here? [2]any particular pronunciation here?

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