Samuel Messenger

Prof. Michael Boldizar and Prof. Anthony Kosar

Great Ideas II

13 December 2022

The Fatal Idols of Okonkwo

Since its publication over 400 years ago, Francis Bacon’s “The Four Idols” has proven

time and again to be an eloquent guide for understanding humanity. Bacon’s discussion of the

limitations to — or “idols” of — human understanding was far ahead of its time. Even now, the

cognitive, individual, linguistic, and philosophical limitations identified by Bacon can be used to

explain why people act the way they do, in real life with real people or in fictional settings with

fictional characters. In the context of Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart,” Bacon’s Idols of the

Cave and Idols of the Theatre can be used to explain why the main character and Igbo leader

Okonkowo hangs himself, yielding a deeper understanding of the character and novel. The Idols

of the Cave show how Okonkwo’s individual view of the world influences his decision, and the

Idols of the Theater demonstrate the inability of two fundamentally different people groups to

understand each other, which also influences his decision.

To understand how Bacon’s Idols of the Cave help explain Okonkwo’s motivation for

suicide, these types of idols must first be understood. According to Bacon, “The Idols of the

Cave are the idols of the individual man” (725). Personal beliefs and ways of thinking or

understanding would fall under this category. Bacon states that whatever the “mind seizes and

dwells upon with peculiar satisfaction is to be held in suspicion” (731). For Okonkwo, a large

part of his worldview involves the upholding of gender roles, with a special emphasis on the
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importance of being “manly.” And this perspective is part of what sets up his suicide at the end

of the book.

In Okonkwo’s eyes, manliness is equated to hard work, personal achievement, violence,

and bravery. Womanliness, meanwhile, is equated to gentleness, weakness, idleness, compassion,

emotion, and cowardice. While these beliefs may be shared by others in Okonkwo’s village,

(Umuofia) to varying degrees, none holds to them so passionately as he. As explained by

Achebe, they control his entire way of thinking:

Okonkwo’s fear was great…. It… lay deep within himself. It was the fear of himself, lest
he should be found to resemble his father. Even as a little boy he had resented his father’s
failures and weaknesses, and even now he still remembered how he had suffered when a
playmate had told him that his father was agbala [a name for a woman or a man without
a title]… And so Okonkwo was ruled by one passion — to hate everything that his father
Unoka had loved… gentleness and… idleness. (13)

Many of Okonkwo’s beliefs about what constitutes masculinity and what constitutes femininity

come from his father, who he saw as an effeminate man. Because he seeks to be nothing like his

father, Okonkwo’s fixation on manliness is a very large part of who he is. Though he sees fear as

being feminine, his fear of becoming his father is what drives him. It is also his idol of the cave.

Further proof of his idolization of manliness can be seen in the way in which he urges his

clansman to go into war after the killing of the royal python. Okonkwo says, “ ‘Let us not reason

like cowards…. If a man comes into my hut and defecates on the floor, what do I do? Do I shut

my eyes? No! I take a stick and break his head. That is what a man does’… Okonkwo made a

sound full of disgust. This was a womanly clan, he thought” (Achebe 158–159). To someone like

Okonkwo, who sees femininity as such a bad thing, warning against cowardice and asserting

what “a man” does seems to be an effective way of arguing his point. His way of arguing by

appealing to a sense of manliness also shows that he expects others to have as strong an aversion

to femininity and ‘feminine’ ways as he does. This misconception clouds his vision until one
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day, his vision clears, and he is able to see that Umuofia is not prepared to be ‘manly’ in the way

he has always wanted. The Christian missionaries who had been gradually imposing their beliefs

upon his people caused him to view his people in a light which he finds impossible to reconcile.

He knows they won’t be prepared to fight the missionaries, so he hangs himself.

The other of Bacon’s idols which explain Okonkwo’s death are the Idols of the Theatre.

These idols arise from “the various dogmas of philosophy, and also from wrong laws of

demonstration” (726). Bacon essentially argues that the collective beliefs and ways of thinking

encouraged by different groups inhibit clear understanding. He cites three classes: those whose

speculations lack enough evidence — Platonists; those who generalize, applying specific

evidence to wide categories — William Gilbert; and the most widely spread according to Bacon,

those who “mix their philosophy with theology and traditions” (734) — Pythagoras. This third,

most rampant class of the Idols of the Theatre also goes the farthest in explaining why the belief

systems of the European missionaries and the Igbo people couldn’t be reconciled without

sacrificing Igbo culture — at least not without great care. Understanding the damage his culture

would be subjected to ultimately contributes to Okonkwo’s death.

At first the Igbo, Okonkwo included, are worried by the handful of villagers that are

converted to Christianity, but “many of them [believe] that the strange faith and the white man’s

god [will] not last” (Achebe 143). Most of the Igbo think that the religion of the missionaries will

die out. After all, they had built their church on land in the “evil forest.” This belief is falsely

based on the idea that the Igbo religion is entirely true — an Idol of the Theatre. The church

survived and thrived on the forbidden land, leading many Igbo to question their beliefs.

Likewise, the missionaries (perhaps with the exception of Mr. Brown) believed that the Igbo

religion was entirely wrong and that theirs was entirely right and true. Neither side was able to
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view the situation objectively, and the aggression of the District Commissioner along with the

relative inclusivity of Christianity and the Igbo’s disillusionment with their gods contributed to

the weak resistance of the Igbo which was so hated by Okonkwo.

One major reason why Okonkwo suddenly began viewing the missionaries as a direct

threat to his society was that “there was a young lad who had been captivated [by the

missionaries’ teachings]. His name was Nwoye, Okonkwo’s first son” (Achebe 147). This is a

huge source of anger for Okonkwo. Imagining a scenario in which none of his children

[sacrifice] to him after his death (Achebe 153), he becomes furious, disowning Nwoye and

making his family disown Nwoye as well. Obierika, Okonkwo’s close friend, says that “it is

already too late… Our own men and our sons have joined the ranks of the stranger” (Achebe

176). The Idol of the Theatre slowly begins to crumble before Okonkwo’s eyes. He — and many

others — are no longer able to view his religion as being superior or more truthful that of the

missionaries’.

The Igbo believe in many gods and spirits, including the egwugwu. The egwugwu are

ancestral spirits which visit them through living relatives who mask themselves and adopt the

new persona. Achebe writes that “Okonkwo’s wives, and perhaps other women as well, might

have noticed that the second egwugwu had the springy walk of Okonkwo. And they might also

have noticed that Okonkwo was not among the titled men and elders who sat behind the row of

egwugwu. But if they thought these things they kept them within themselves” (89–90). The Igbo

religion consists both of superstition and self-deception. They believe in several deities and they

believe in honoring their ancestors. The missionaries, meanwhile, are Chistians. They believe in

one God and have no tolerance for superstition or self-deception. Their respect for their ancestors

isn’t as ingrained in their culture as was the case for the Igbo. According to Achebe, “[o]ne of the
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greatest crimes a man could commit was to unmask an egwugwu in public, or to say or do

anything which might reduce its immortal prestige in the eyes of the uninitiated. And this is what

Enoch did” (Achebe 186). Enoch, one of the converts, shocked all of Umuofia by “killing” an

ancestral spirit. This was just another event in a series of events which broke apart the Igbo

people.

In anger, Okonkwo suddenly kills one of the missionaries’ messengers at an emergency

meeting! But the crowd’s reaction tells him all he needs to know: “He knew that Umuofia would

not go to war. He knew because they had let the other messengers escape. They had broken into

tumult instead of action. He discerned fright in that tumult… He wiped his machete on the sand

and went away” (Achebe 205). This is the last time Okonkwo is shown before his death in the

subsequent chapter. Okonkwo decides to take his own life when he sees that his people are not

prepared to kill the missionaries. Witnessing the desecration of his culture and recognizing fear

in his clanmates, he is so disgusted and disillusioned that he hangs himself.

Bacon’s idols are still relevant today in that they yield a deeper understanding of how

(real or fictional) people think. Okonkwo’s suicide is rationalized through Bacon’s “Idols of the

Cave” and “Idols of the Theatre.” The crumbling of Okonkwo’s idols leaves him and his village

in such as state that he feels it necessary to commit suicide. In a way, Okonkwo symbolizes the

Igbo culture, or on a larger scale, all African cultures threatened by European evangelism. His

death represents the death of his culture to the missionaries.

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Works Cited

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. Penguin Books, New York, NY, 2017.

Bacon, Francis. “The Four Idols.” A World of Ideas: Essential Readings for College Writers,

edited by Lee A. Jacobus, Bedford/St. Martin's, Boston, MA, 2020, pp. 722–737.