Monique Neysmith
English 212-Section 007- World Literature
Dr. Augustine Okereke
December 11, 2010
Two Different Lives, Same Endings
Some people say that a person has full control over what happens in their life. Their own actions are the cause of what takes place and what can be avoided. Whether they are good, evil, loyal, or dishonest, among other traits, lay the foundation for how their life will turn out. Although this may sound correct, there are others who think otherwise. Can we control what happens or is our life planned out even before we are born? In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and Oedipus the King by Sophocles, we see two men from different parts of the world at different times fall to their demise. But who was responsible for it; fate or themselves?
Okonkwo, the protagonist in Things Fall Apart is portrayed as this big, strong, African man of high status who came a long way to become what he became. His father Unoka was somebody who Okonkwo didn’t respect and didn’t want to have anything to do with. He referred to his father as a woman because he was lazy, owed people money, had no titles, and was so poor he couldn’t feed his wife and children. When Unoka died he was in debt and wasn’t valued. These were things that Okonkwo feared of becoming and took every precaution there was to be the opposite of his father. At an early age he made a name for himself by defeating a powerful wrestler in a wrestling match and since then, he never stopped being successful. He had three wives, many children, and plenty of money to take care of his large family. He was well respected in his village and other villages. His success also made him very arrogant. “Only a week ago a man had contradicted him at a kindred meeting which they held to discuss the next ancestral feast. Without looking at the man Okonkwo had said. “This meeting is for men.” The man who had contradicted him had no titles. That was why he had called him a woman. Okonkwo knew how to kill a man’s spirit” (Achebe 2947).
He did many things in his life to become a better man than his father was but also did many things that were unnecessary just to prove his manliness. The thing he did that had a life changing repercussion was kill one of his clansmen. It was by mistake but he was still exiled. During his time away, the Europeans took over his village. When he got back he couldn’t understand why or how they were able to do it. He began to think of his clansmen as weak. “Worthy men are no more,” Okonkwo sighed as he remembered those days. Isike will never forget how we slaughtered them in that war…Those were days when men were men” (Achebe 3026). His arrogance made him despise his village because he thought he was better than all of the men who were now weak as women. Eventually it all got to him and he couldn’t bear to live in a place like that. He hung himself from a tree and died a dishonorable man. His death was an embarrassment to his clan and he wasn’t even able to have a proper burial. Okonkwo spent his whole life trying to be better than his father and in the end, he ended up worse than him.
Oedipus was a man who had power, just like Okonkwo. Oedipus’s birth parents, Laius and Jocasta, sent him away to be killed after the Greek god Apollo told them that their son would grow up and kill his father and marry his mother. He was never killed because the person who took Oedipus from his birth parents gave him to his adoptive parents, King Polybus and his wife Merope. He grew up thinking those were his real parents until one day a drunken man told him
the truth. Polybus and Merope denied the story but Oedipus went to Apollo to find out the truth. This is a sign of Oedipus’s ego and arrogance. He was never satisfied with the knowledge he had, he always had to dig deep into everything. Apollo told him that he would kill his father and
marry his mother, whom he will have children with. He was frightened and wanted to avoid the fate the god warned him of so he ran away from his parents so he wouldn’t be able to kill his father or marry his mother.
On his way to a new place, he killed a man on the road. He thought nothing of it and continued on his journey. He came across Thebes, a city that was cursed by a sphinx which no one could solve. Oedipus was the only person who was able to solve the riddle and was crowned King. This made his ego and arrogance worse. He thought he was better than everybody else because he was the only person who was able to solve the riddle that set the city free. That also made him boastful. “Here I am myself- you all know me, the world knows my fame: I am Oedipus” (Sophocles 392).
He was now a king and a married man with children living a happy life until one day everything came back to haunt him. When he found out he was Laius’s killer and his wife was his mother, he couldn’t believe it. Even though he was getting clues along the way, he still was in disbelief. Jocasta told him not to send for any more people to confirm the story but his arrogance and cockiness made him do it anyway. In the end he found out what kind of disgraceful person he was and his title and what he accomplished in life no longer mattered. As payment for what he did he gauged his eyes out and left the kingdom. In the end, he wound up being the person he tried so hard to avoid.
Oedipus and Okonkwo shared many traits; arrogance, boastfulness, cockiness, but also their accomplishments. They did things in their lives that made them who they were, which gave them the character they had. They also brought things on themselves. If Okonkwo would’ve never had a gun that he knew he didn’t know how to handle his clansman wouldn’t have gotten killed. As a result, he wouldn’t have had to be exiled to his mothers land. If Oedipus wasn’t so determined and knew how to leave things alone, he wouldn’t have went to Apollo to find out who his real parents were and he would’ve never found out what his fate would be. Then he would’ve never run right into it.
They both played major parts in their demise but in my opinion, Okonkwo bears more responsibility for his than Oedipus. Oedipus didn’t know that he was adopted for a major part of his life, even after he ran to another city. He didn’t even know he killed his father on the road or married his mother but after he found out, he took responsibility. “I stand revealed at last-cursed in my birth, cursed in marriage, cursed in the lives I cut down with these hands!"(novelguide).
Okonkwo on the other hand knew the things he did were wrong but refused to ever show any kind of remorse for his actions and he repeatedly did bad things. “Inwardly, he was repentant. But he was not the man to go about telling his neighbors that he was in error. And so people said he had no respect for the gods of the clan. His enemies said his good fortune had gone to his head” (Achebe 2950). His wealth, power, and the fact that he was a better man than his father made him disregard rules and regulations.
At the end of everything, Oedipus became humble and accepting of his fate and what he had done, even if he didn’t know. “His attitude toward Creon also seems dramatically altered when the new king approaches Oedipus, who implores the audience: ‘Oh no, what can I say to him? How can I ever hope to win his trust? I wronged him so, just now, in every way. You must see that-I was so wrong, so wrong’" (novelguide). Okonkwo would never have humbled himself as Oedipus did. His pride wouldn’t allow it. That is one reason why his life turned out the way it did. He let his pride get in his way of solving problems rationally and was hands on about every situation. “Despite his inward show of concern, he never seemed to care for anything other than his good name. Holding on to such a weak rope made the break imminent. A balanced and honest life would have brought guaranteed benefits, holistic knowledge and love of his self. His fall was a sad one but he was largely responsible for his own demise” (africaspeaks).
Two men from two different parts of the world during two different times shared the same traits and tragic endings. In life, our actions are the reasons for the things that happen to us. By looking at the way Oedipus’s and Okonkwo’s lives turned out we can see that this is very true. Even though Oedipus didn’t know what harmful things he did, he had to pay the price in the end. Okonkwo knew very well what he was doing but thought he was untouchable to payback. Reading both of these stories shows the reader how fate works; even if one tries to avoid it and make a better life for themselves, whatever is destined to happen to them will happen. In the end, everybody’s actions plays a part in how their life will end.
Works Cited
Achebe, Chinua. “Things Fall Apart.” The Longman Anthology of World Literature. Compact Edition. New York: Longman, 2008. 2936-3030. Print.
Leslie. Things Fall Apart: A review. AfricaSpeaks.com. August 28, 2004. Web. Dec. 11, 2010.
NovelGuide: Oedipus the King: Theme Analysis. NovelGuide.com. 1999-2010. Web. Dec. 11, 2010.
Sophocles. “Oedipus the King.” The Longman Anthology of World Literature. Compact Edition. New York: Longman, 2008. 388-433. Print.