Chapter 25

Well looks like I was wrong once again. The District Commisioner visits Okonkwo's compound and asks for him but the men standing outside the hut tell him he's not home. The Commisioner gets mad and asks again but he is answered with the same answer again. Then Obierika leads him behind the house where Okonkwo has hanged himself. He hanged himself. That to me is the most womanly thing that someone can do. He brought most of the thigns upon himself and he ends up killing himself as a result. This all came out of his resentment of his father. His whole attitude is what made him beat his wives, kill Ikemefuna, and kill the messenger. If he could have controlled himself and not worried about what otheres thought of him and didn't always have a maks on he may have lived on, but then again he probably would have been hanged by the Comissioner. I still don't agree with Okonkwo's decision to kill himself. He was always so mad at his son for not obeying the tribes rules but here he is killing himself which is a horrible sin in the eyes of the tribe. They can't even touch him or bury him because his body is considered evil. I really disagree with Obierika in this chapter. He blames the Commisioner for Okonkwo's death. It was totally Okonkwo's fault. He brought everything upon himself. I think Obierika was just trying to validate Okonkwo's death instead of accepting the fact that his friend committed a huge horrible sin. Okonkwo's body is buried though by the Christians and strangers from a neighboring village. Although Okonkwo's possessions were great he was a terrible man. He single handedly tore his hand apart. He brought pain to his people. He is not a good man and the sad part was that he could have fixed it all if he wanted to but he had a macho man figure he had to uphold. That's also present in today's society. Men today have to put on a mask for people to accept them but I think that is so wrong. You should be who you are no matter where you are or who you are with. Take Okonkwo for an example if you don't believe me. He had a mask and he killed himself. Personally I thought the book was alright I guess. I really hated Okonkwo from the get go. The most valueable thing I got out of the book was the lesson that you should show emotion to those you love and care about because if you don't you can really hurt them or send them the wrong message. The other message I got from the book was always be yourself no matter what other people think. If you put on that mask you can only be headed for bad things. You only do harm not good. I sorta hated the ending. I was hoping for more bloodshed or something like that. I did enjoy reading about and comparing the African culture that Okonkwo experienced to our own and seeing the similarities and differences that were present.It seemed like it hyped up all this tension between the two tribes and then it just ends when a man hangs himself. I think Achebe definately could have done a better job with that. Overall I would give the book a B-