Okonkwo's Suicide: The Loss of a Son.
There are many things that can drive a man to do rash things. One of these is losing a son, through either a physical or cultural separation. When they were arguing at a dinner party, Ivan the Terrible struck his son with a fire poker and accidentally killed him. The guilt drove him to the brink of insanity. In Things Fall Apart, it seems that Okonkwo kills himself because of a fear of weakness. His main motive, however, was his guilt from essentially killing both his sons.
Throughout the entire story, Okonkwo is driven by the fear of being weak. This fear is shown when he kills Ikemefuna. "Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought of as weak."(61) The very reason Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna, is because he is driven by this fear. It is the same fear that drives Okonkwo to kill himself. In his eyes, being commanded by white men is a sign of weakness. Okonkwo is so afraid, that he would rather take his own life than be ordered into court and killed by white men. This trait is also mentioned when Okonkwo is described. "Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and weakness. It was deeper and more intimate than the fear of evil."(13) This displays not only Okonkwo's fear of failure and weakness, but also a more intimate fear of being like his father. He shares this fear with his own son, Nwoye.
Morgan 2.
Okonkwo was responsible for losing both of his sons, and the guilt, as well as the sorrow, led to his suicide. Okonkwo was a role model in his culture, a culture that Nwoye did not understand. Okonkwo's lack of open emotions turned Nwoye away from him to Christianity. Nwoye feared becoming as callous as his father, and he converted. The conversion was a result of Okonkwo's actions, as was the death of Ikemefuna. He himself killed his son, even though he knew that he should not have.
