Change In Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart" and Katey Schultz's "Deuce Out" (Essay Example)

Changing and adapting to the world is needed to survive. If someone cannot change with the times, they will be left behind. Chinua Achebe, who wrote Things Fall Apart, and Katey Schultz, who wrote “Deuce Out”, show the theme that change is required to be able to live life how you want to. The inability to react to one’s environment and adjust to it can spark difficulties in day-to-day lives. Steph and Okonkwo prove that one’s inability to change can lead to their downfall.

Dealing with change in Steph and Okonkwo’s families led to their downfall. When Steph and Okonkwo must adjust to their family life being disrupted, they do not respond well, which leads to their demise. Steph’s inability to deal with Dustin’s leaving is shown; “He told me things in letters home that Mom and Dad didn’t know what to make of. Nothing top secret; just something we could call our own despite the fact that – excluding his basic training – I’d never gone a few days without seeing him my entire life” (Schultz 31). This shows the close relationship that Steph and Dustin had, since even their parents didn’t know what their letters to each other meant. Steph then states that she has never gone more than a couple of days without seeing him, except for one day, which leads the reader to understand why it would be so difficult to suddenly stop seeing him. Dealing with changes like these can be difficult to take in, even if they only occur for a short amount of time. Achebe shows the emotions that Okonkwo feels after killing Ikemefuna, “As soon as his father walked in, that night, Nwoye knew that Ikemefuna had been killed, and something seemed to give way inside him, like the snapping of a tightened bow. He did not cry. He just hung limp. He had had the same kind of feeling not long ago, during the last harvest season. Every child loved the harvest season” (Achebe 61). Nwoye realized that something was not right with his father due to his mood and stance, and he immediately drew it back to Ikemefuna and concluded that Ikemefuna was dead. He knew that it would be difficult for Okonkwo to deal with as a result of getting so close to him. Okonkwo was forced to carry the responsibility of killing Ikemefuna for his whole life, and this certainly did not help when he later had trouble with the new way of life, which led to his death. Family life changes are not the only issues that Steph and Okonkwo struggle with, other issues occur in their lives that alter them severely.

Steph and Okonkwo’s desires made it impossible for them to change, which led to their deaths. Steph and Okonkwo could not compass their desires or at least pause them, which made it impossible for them to adapt to the change, and they died as a result. Dustin realizes that Steph is not meant for the army and tells Steph, “‘Dustin, I passed. I passed everything. Or at least the beginning of everything. It’s all happening!’ ‘This isn’t for you. This isn’t what it seems,’ he said. Then slowly: ‘You. Do not belong. In the Army’” (Schultz 120-121).  Steph wants to join the army to be with her brother, but her brother knows she should not. He is not allowed to tell his family what is going on with him, so she does not know all of the trouble and trauma he is going through. She only sees pictures of him being happy. Steph ignores Dustin’s warning, and it comes back to end her. She did not realize how lousy an idea it was to join the army because she was only concerned with one aspect of it: being with her brother, and she was unaware of the other aspects of the military. Okonkwo wanted to be everything his father was not:

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 failure and weakness… That was how Okonkwo first came to know that agbala was not only another name for a woman, it could also mean a man who had taken no title. And so Okonkwo was ruled by one passion–to hate everything that his father Unoka had loved. One of those things was gentleness and another was idleness. (Achebe 13)

Okonkwo is showing that he will do anything to be unlike his father. He goes to such an extreme that most of the time it ends up doing more harmful than beneficial. If Okonkwo had just done what his father did not do well, like having a better work ethic and other small stuff, he would have been fine, but Okonkwo ended up killing himself because of how extreme his dislike for his father was. He could not change with the times because he wanted to be masculine and always wanted to be right. His desire to be unlike his father overtook his common sense. Undesired change, as well as traditional changes, can lead to some people being stubborn and harm them greatly.

The change in tradition for the characters was unusual for them, and they couldn’t adjust, which ended up in their deaths. Steph and Okonkwo had tradition and supported it massively, so when it changed, they could not adjust. Steph was so used to tradition that she hated the change and said, “But now, Dustin’s words made me angry…I knew the Army had to be hard work, but being left behind felt even harder. A whole new globe of possibilities existed beyond Newberg, and I couldn’t reach any of them. Dustin’s experience with other soldiers placed him into that same category: unreachable…I stayed stuck waiting for graduation” (Schultz 40). Steph was so used to being with her brother and was understanding of him. She felt that if she needed something, she could ask him and they could work it out. Now, with Dustin gone, Steph doesn’t have anyone to help her, and she feels abandoned and powerless to solve her issues. She knew that she was not his priority anymore, and felt that they were drifting away, which made her angry and stuck. She felt that she could not leave Newberg and discover the world around her because no one was there for her. The idea of not having multiple gods was interpreted by the people:

‘Your gods are not alive and cannot do you any harm,’ replied the white man. ‘They are pieces of wood and stone.’ When this was interpreted to the men of Mbanta they broke into derisive laughter. These men must be mad, they said to themselves. How else could they say that Ani and Amadori were harmless? And Idemili and Ogwugwu too? Some of them began to go away. (Achebe 146)

When the white men arrived in the villages, the people were already confused and did not want anyone invading them, so they already did not like them. Then the white men go on to say that their religion, which they have been practicing for thousands of years, is wrong, and they should change. The people in the villages find this to be blasphemous, so they laugh because they do not want to change their thoughts and think that their way is the only way. Not many people are open to the idea of changing just because someone tells them to. People who fail to acclimate themselves to the modern-day environment suffer, and can even die.

Throughout their stories, Steph and Okonkwo emphasize the need for change, as the inability to change led to their downfall. The consequences of someone’s actions can decide their fate, and some people or characters do not pick wisely. If anyone wants to thrive in their world, they need to be able to adjust to everything around them.