Bryan Yu

Mrs. DeBoer

English

1 October 2013

Things Fall Apart: Summary/Alternate Ending

Okonkwo, the protagonist, is a self-made man. His father was lazy and a coward, and owned

many debts to his neighbors. Okonkwo is very ashamed by this and becomes the polar opposite of his

father, and in result, he establishes himself as a farmer, warrior, and a wealthy man. He has a son, who

he fears is lazy and will turn out like his own father. After Okonkwo is exiled from his home village for

violating a clan rule, he travels to his motherland, Mbanta and resides there for seven years. During his

stay, he learns that white missionaries are coming to the villages and converting the Igbo people to

Christianity. Once he returns to Umuofia, he realizes that it has changed. White man rule is dominate,

as the church is expanding and forces the African tribes to follow their laws and religion. Although they

have a very strong influence, Mr. Brown tries to maintain a good relationship with the villages. When

this is going well, Mr. Brown falls ill and Reverend James Smith takes over. He opposes Brown’s ideals

and forces his strict ways against the native people; his followers are relieved and start to do whatever

to the Igbo people. This starts to anger the tribes and they react by burning down their church and

buildings. Tension finally breaks when a messenger of the missionaries is killed by Okonkwo. After he

realizes no one will back him up and go to war, he kills himself.

Once he killed the messenger, he looked and saw no one was going to support his rebellion. He

was enraged by how his people changed. “You cowards! Fight the missionaries and to take back what is

ours! How will you let these white men just walk onto our soil and tell us what to do? We have to fight!”

declared Okonkwo.

This lit a spark in the villagers, as slowly the people murmured in approval. More and more

people started to get encouraged and soon the whole crowd shouted Okonkwo’s name and cheered him

on. This is what Okonkwo always wanted: To show he wasn’t scared of anything, unlike his father.

Though everything around him had turned to cowardice, Okonkwo still remained strong, courageous,

and determined. This became the catalyst moment for him, as he both mentally and physically

conquered his greatest fear, and that was to be like his shameful father.

After the rally, the villagers agreed to meet back one week later to carry out the attack. During

this week, they gathered the supplies and weapons needed to execute the plan. Since this was a full on

attack, they needed every weapon from torches to guns. The community was closer than before as they

prepared for the siege on the missionaries. Before, they were split in religion, some Christian and some

still believed their old religion. Now, they had a common goal and united to fight a common enemy.

The night was filled with darkness, as no light was able to penetrate it except the moons.

Everyone crowed around Okonkwo as he gave instructions to his warriors. Once everyone was in place,

the war party left for the missionaries, with their leader in front. The faces of the warriors were painted

in honor of the earth deity, the spirit that had been killed by one of the white men. This also

represented their religion and further enforced the idea of the tribes fighting as one. Once they reached

the foreigners’ camp, they burned everything they owned.

Okonkwo’s men dragged out the leaders from the burning church, including Reverend James

Smith and set them onto the ground. Okonkwo strolled up to James Smith and held his machete to his

throat.

“You and your people are just like locusts, sent to cause destruction and to take our

possessions,” he whispered with a threating tone, “However, they were at least tasty.”

And with those words, Okonkwo made one clean slit with his machete to end his life.