Social forces which are social customs, religious customs, and gender roles appear in

every society and it helps to shape people’s identity. In Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall

Apart, illustrates the impacts of social forces on the main character named Okonkwo and the

ways that the Igbos use to handle the Europeans who come to spread their Christian belief. The

social customs and gender roles shaped Okonkwo to be a person who doesn’t give up easily,

be confident and believes in himself even though there are some shifting of their belief.

In the earlier part of the novel, Chinua Achebe demonstrates how Umuofian social

forces benefit Okonkwo and how it affects his actions to become persistent person. This novel

contains life of Okonkwo who is living in the Umuofia village and the different parts of social

forces including social customs, religious customs and gender roles. The roles of men in

Umuofia is growing yams and it can state social classes in Umuofia society. The more yams

they have, the wealthier they are. Men are also expected to take care of their family. This

demonstrated by page 33, “Yam stood for manliness, and he who could feed his family on

yams from one harvest to another was a very great man indeed.” According to page 21, “I have

come to you for help. Perhaps you can already guess what it is. I have cleared a farm but have

no yams to sow … I am not afraid of work.”, this shows that Okonkwo is attempting to grow

yams in order to show his masculinity because he goes to his friend’s house for asking help

which is borrowing yam seeds and Okonkwo keeps trying to grow yams even though his yams

don’t grow well at first. Social customs and gender roles are important to Okonkwo because

he values strength and honor. In other words, Okonkwo doesn’t want to be weak and doesn’t

want to stay in low social class, but he wants other people to view him as a strong man.

Therefore, he never gives up with growing yams. This indicates that social customs and gender

roles, which are being strong and growing men’s crops as much as they can influence Okonkwo

thoughts and his actions in beneficial ways. In the end, he becomes a person who keeps trying
and doesn’t give up easily since there are social forces that push him to be a strong and powerful

man.

In the following part of the novel, Chinua Achebe examines how social customs harm

Okonkwo and how it affects his actions to become decisive person. This novel contains the

story of Okonkwo when he returns to his village, Umuofia, after seven years of his exile and

there are some changes because the white men come to spread their belief which is Christianity.

According to page 176, “We must fight these men and drive them from the land”, Okonkwo is

a person who never has a thought to change his belief and he wants to find a way to fight and

to keep his customs. He expects that the clan will agree with him to have a fight and to help

him to drive white men out because he believes that no one wants to join Christian and his

customs are good since every people can follow and it doesn’t create any conflicts to the

village. However, the clan are separated and every people in the village disagree with Okonkwo

that Igbos should have war and fight with Europeans because some people convert to Christian.

This is demonstrated by page 176, “Now he won our brothers, and our clan no longer act like

one.” Moreover, there are pressure from society on Okonkwo because he is the only one in the

village who strongly wants to drive out the Christians. With his expectation of the clan and the

pressure from the society, he feels disappointed and he decides to make his own decision which

is killing himself. From page 207, “It is as offense against the Earth, and a man who commits

it will not be buried by his clansmen. His body is evil, and only strangers may touch it.”, we

realized that converting to Christian is unacceptable for Okonkwo. Thus, he chooses to kill

himself rather than being one part of Christian. His action can refer to separation between

Okonkwo and the Europeans and his action also tells that he feels upset with the clan because

in the beginning, he has confidence that the clan will join him to drive out the Christians, but

the clan all has opposite thoughts with Okonkwo. Nevertheless, Okonkwo still fully believes
in himself and believes in his customs. Finally, with assertive identity, Okonkwo surely to

make his own decision to end his life.

To sum up, the overall central ideas toward main character, Okonkwo, within Chinua

Achebe’s novel illustrates how social forces influence identity of Okonkwo which lead to

positive and negative of his actions. In connecting Okonkwo’s attitude with social’s attitude,

we realize that his determination and consistent have shaped by his social customs and gender

roles. Although social forces can motivate people in beneficial ways, sometimes too much

social forces can cause pressure, leading to mental breakdown and harmful actions.