Final post on Things Fall Apart

I found the end of Things Fall Apart very odd. Having Okonkwo kill himself, the least honorable kind of death, is very out of character. Since his birth, he has always search for honor. This is one of the primary character traits for Okonkwo. I don't believe Achebe sticks to Okonkwo's personality by killing him off in such a way, especially because Okonkwo would have believed it was cowardly. I believe he would have made himself a type of martyr in which he died an honorable death. This sort of death would have suited Okonkwo's character much better (in my personal opinion). However, I do think Achebe made this decision for a reason. Looking at the passage where the Europeans discovered Okonkwo's body, I think Achebe placed the clansmen at the compound, even though they were simply standing around, for a symbolic reason.  I think he meant for the clansmen to symbolize the African race, while Okonkwo symbolized the African way of life. My thought here is that Achebe is trying to emphasize the death of the native African way of life, while the African race stood by silently watching. In the book when the clansmen were afraid to remove Okonkwo from the tree because of superstitious reasons, I believe Achebe is attempting to portray the fear Africans had at the time. I'm not exactly sure where this fear stems from, but the most probable cause for this fear comes from the Europeans.