Achebe introduces the main character Okonkwo, who lives and breathes every moment of his life thinking about reaching achievements and being a man of no weakness. He becomes almost obsessed with himself and trying to be the manliest man he can be. Okonkwo’s identity is formed by his community. He has a role in his community to be a man and has future ambitions of trying to accomplish achievements. Due to the titles he has received in his community, he has a sense of worth, since his values are recognized. In order to be recognized though, one must identify with someone to reach recognition. Okonkwo identifies with the clan of Umofia while his son Nwoye, identifies himself with Ikemefuna. Achebe is able to use these two characters to show the correlation between community and self. First with Nwoye, when Ikemefuna was killed “Something seemed to give way inside him, like the snapping of a tightened bow.”(p. 232, Achebe). The snapping feeling is the snapping of his sense of self, since he is now lost without a connection, which was what Ikemefuna was. Without this connection, he has no attachments; therefore he has no sense of community or self. This then leads to Okonkwo.
After Okonkwo was in his motherland for seven years, all he thrived about was how he was going to succeed even more when he was back in Umofia. When he returned back to Umofia it said, “Okonkwo’s return to his native land was not as memorable as he had wished…Umofia did not appear to have taken any special notice of the warrior’s return.” (p. 129, Achebe). This part begins to show the downfall Okonkwo is experiencing with his own identity due to falling apart of his community. Okonkwo was expecting huge recognition when we returned, but he received none. Okonkwo as a character needed this praise and recognition to reassure his importance and role in his community, but when he receives none from his clan, he begins to be hit with the realization that his clan is not like it was before, and that it has moved on. By Okonkwo not being recognized, it means he doesn’t exist meaningfully, which makes him have a sense of worthlessness. By having him having no sense of worth anymore, there is no sense of community either. The book further goes on to say “Okonkwo was deeply grieved. And it was not just a personal grief. He mourned for the clan, which he saw breaking apart, and he mourned for the warlike men of Umofia who had so unaccountably become soft like women” (p.129, Achebe). The reason as to why he mourned for his clan is because it was now dead in his mind. If there is no community, there is no self. Therefore he is not only mourning for his community, but his self as well. It is not until he kills the messenger, that he witnesses his clan erupt in chaos and scatter in all directions. As the clan runs in all different directions, Okonkwo becomes aware they’re individuals, therefore there is no clan. They individuals had neither meaning nor focus, which is exact opposite of the clans’ values. The moment that messenger is killed, the clan as well as Okonkwo dies. Okonkwos ambitions were now lost when community became dead because it gave him nothing to look forward to. There was now no community, there was now no self.
As Achebe was able to reveal the correlation of how the destruction of Okonkwos community led to the destruction of his own identity, Remarque is able to show this correlation through the characters of soldiers who are fighting in World War I. Remarque explains the dehumanization these soldiers have to go through to their identity in order to survive. It’s as though they rip away any identity they’ve ever had and focus on one thing: survival. Any emotion they feel or anything event they witness, they move to the back of their mind, trying to not feel nor remember anything. Unlike Okonkwo who is building his identity in his community, these soldiers are losing their identity in a place where there is no community. As stated before, community is essential to identity. These men cannot generate a sense of value, if they aren’t recognized. As the book starts out it becomes apparent that these men aren’t individually recognized, since they are looked upon as just numbers. For example, when the cook cooked enough food for a hundred and fifty men, but only half the men came back alive. The men were happy they had double to food to eat rather than looking at the fact that half the men died. It shows how these men are forced to detach from everything, leaving them with no attachments. With no sense of worth nor having any attachments, it’s impossible for these men to have an identity in a place where there is no community. Conversely, by having no sense of worth nor any attachments, it makes them have the ability to focus on just survival.
The main character Paul in this book comes to this war with a group of his schoolmates. They had previously existed in a community with their families and classmates. By going to school they were preparing for the future and had a role in the society. By having a role in the society they had a sense of worth. As soon as they got to the war, that sense of worth deteriorated along with hopes of what the future may bring. While Paul talked about past and how he had hopes for the future, he stated, “We believe in such things no longer, we believe in the war.” (p.88, Remarque). Paul, like the rest of the soldiers, cannot look on the past nor the future, but just focus on survival. He no longer has any attachments to his old community, since all of his attachments had to be removed in order for him to be able to survive. It becomes quite apparent of the effect the war has already taken on him when he goes on leave and gets to go home for a little bit. Paul states his sense of feeling when he has just arrived home, “I cannot feel at home among these things. There is my mother, there is my sister, there my case of butterflies, and there the mahogany piano – but I am not myself there. There is a distance, a veil between us.”(p.160, Remarque). Paul has lost all his attachments, which is why he feels no value towards being home. He has dehumanized himself to the point where home is not his home anymore. He has truly lost his identity. Being home in his old community, he knows he is not part of it anymore. He has no attachments now and therefore no community. The war has destructed him as a human and he has lost his identity.
Just as Okonkwo lost his identity in the fall of his community, Paul did as well. Near the end of both novels both characters come to the realization of hopelessness. Okonkwo realizes his clan is hopeless in winning over the imperialists who have taken over his clan and Paul becomes aware of the hopelessness Germany has in the war. Both characters lose hope in the one thing that was keeping them alive. As the community around them demolished, their identity went with it. Before Okonkwo hung himself and before Paul was killed on the front, they both had been long gone.
Works Cited
Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Anchor, 1994. Print.
Remarque, Erich Maria. All Quiet on the Western Front. New York: Ballantine, 1982. Print.
