Chinua Achebe and Albert Camus: Okonkwo's suicide in <i>Things Fall Apart</i> and <i>The Vision of the Absurd</i>

Abstract

This paper discussed Camus’ Vision of the Absurd as demonstrated by Chinua Achebe in Things Fall Apart through his Character, Okonkwo. Using sociological and psychological details, it considered the issue of suicide as the absurd outcome of an upsetting effect of the new world order and a contradiction or divorce between man and his setting. This paper also brought to bear the unacceptable terms of life under a treacherous and alien government where the governed would prefer death to a life of compromise and of cowardice.