developing into a lazy, sensitive man gradually led to his downfall. Okonkwo's violent, aggressive personality results in his exile and motivates him to kill a white European messenger. While the oppressive colonial regime certainly impacts the Igbo tribes and incites Okonkwo's rage, the colonists are not fully responsible for Okonkwo's tragic decision to commit suicide. Instead of valiantly attempting to undermine the colonial regime or assimilate and conform in order to survive, Okonkwo makes the cowardly decision to kill himself to avoid being imprisoned by the Europeans. The Igbo people view Okonkwo's death as cowardly and his corpse is thrown into the Evil Forest with the other undesirable members of the tribe. His severe fall from greatness emphasizes and corresponds to how quickly the European colonists undermine the traditional Igbo culture and way of life.

Okonkwo's suicide was an act of despair. It cannot be seen as brave, but whether it is cowardly or not is a matter of cultural context. In the Christian culture that has engulfed Umuofia and driven Okonkwo to this despair, it would certainly be regarded as an act of cowardice. Christians typically regard suicide as the unpardonable sin, since it involves disbelief in the goodness of God and rejection of his creation. The District Commissioner and the followers of the new religion would therefore certainly call Okonkwo's suicide cowardly.

Okonkwo himself, of course, does not subscribe to this view. For him, Christianity is one of the insidious western influences that has caused things to fall apart in the traditional warrior culture in which he was brought up. Throughout his life, Okonkwo has quickly resorted to physical violence as a solution to every problem. This violence has always been directed outwards, in his career as a warrior and a wrestler, but it is at least understandable that, faced with overwhelming odds against which he can no longer fight, he would turn his violence against himself.

In certain warrior cultures (that of Japan, for instance), suicide is seen as an honorable death. This is not the case in Umuofia. Okonkwo's suicide has polluted the tribe, and is seen by the older men as a disgrace. However, since the traditional structure of the tribe has fallen apart and Okonkwo does not accept the new structure imposed from outside, it is possible to argue that there is no social structure left within which the act is shameful. One cannot know precisely what was in Okonkwo's heart as he killed himself, and the social standards which would have condemned the act as cowardly no longer apply.

It is certainly feasible that one could see Okonkwo’s suicide as noble.  At the root of Okonkwo’s internal conflict was his resistance to change. His suicide is a direct result of this conflict. When Okonkwo returns from his exile, he has high hopes to return to the place of honor and respect that he once held; he also hopes to return to a Umofia that has not been changed much by the white man. He is disappointed on both accounts. He finds that Umofia has, indeed, changed as a result of the missonaries’ coming, and he is not pleased with these changes. When he kills the court messenger and none of his fellow tribesmen back him up, he comes to understand that things will never be as they once were and that he will never be the man and leader he once was. His committing suicide is the only option he sees as possible. He would rather die than corrupt his traditional beliefs. That can certainly be seen as a noble act.