The Prophecy of Violent Actions in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe Being an overly proud clan leader eager to keep his family name intact, Okonkwo is a man prone to reckless decisions that led to failed judgments and violence. While Okonkwo's primary concern is to avoid becoming like his failed father Unoka, actively avoiding one's fate by harnessing power can lead to their downfall. Achebe uses Okonkwo's anger-fueled violence to illustrate that failure to accept one's fate leads to death, further giving Achebe's depiction of violence a prophetic meaning. As Okonkwo's acts of violence and the resulting consequences grow, he eventually loses the ability to make decisions, providing a crescendo towards the conclusion. Although they do not use a directly violent approach, Okonkwo reacts to the missionaries in a violent manner, demonstrating that he has learned nothing from his seven-year exile. Achebe does this to further illustrate Okonkwo's position as a plot device: while most tragic characters may experience a change of character after seven years, Okonkwo still refuses to accept things as they are and, in this case, they change, and then he commits suicide. Overall, Achebe's depiction of violence in his novel Things Fall Apart takes a prophetic approach as it illustrates the lack of control over one's life. Where the events triggered by Okonkwo's anger are rather minor in his culture toward the beginning of the novel, the outbursts grow in intensity and the punishments in severity over the course of the novel. As his actions and punishments increase, Okonkwo's story follows the arc of the classic narrative and depicts a crescendo throughout the novel, finally ending with his