Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
Analyze okonkwo
Discuss the rise and fall of okonkwo
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Analyze okonkwo
Discuss the rise and fall of okonkwo
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Okonkwo tries to fight the changes made by the Western people. Okonkwo’s response to the Western people trying to bring Western ideas into the Ibo culture are simply trying to fight back at the Western people with violence. Okonkwo is a strong and fierce leader, but throughout the story, he is challenged by the Western people and the cultural collision because Okonkwo is supposed to be the leader of Umuofia. Okonkwo is supposed to fight back for his village and not stop until he gets it done. In the story Achebe quotes, “He was a man of action, a man of war.
Upon his return to the barely recognizable Umuofia, Okonkwo thinks, “The warlike men of Umuofia...had so unaccountably become soft like women” (183). The members of the village of Umuofia widely respect Okonkwo, for male dominance does not seem out of the ordinary to them. Likewise, Odysseus treats women unfairly, yet does not receive any criticism. In addition, Achebe narrates, “He was still young but he had won fame as the greatest wrestler in the nine villages” (8). Because of Okonkwo’s determination to prove himself as a great man, he prospers.
Prompt 2 Okonkwo is driven by his hatred of his father and the fear he will become like him. Okonkwo saw his father, Unoka, as a coward and is ashamed to be his son. Everything that Okonkwo does is meant to set him apart from the legacy of his father. First, this is evident in his beating of his wives and even his aggression with his children. He is trying to show his strength and ensure he is not portrayed to be like his father: powerless and incapable.
Okonkwo was a big supporter of physical and verbal abuse in his home, especially towards his wives and Nwoye. To Okonkwo, physical abuse was another language. This is how he spoke, and punished, on the occasion of the abuse, and how he had handled the situation. Women was treated poorly in Umuofia because men believe that they were weak and in inadequate. “ Even as a little boy Okonkwo had represented his father 's failure and weakness, and even now he still remembered how he had suffered when a playmate had told him that his father was Agbala.
Great summary and you are bringing up a key point that is a culture. With rapid globalization, it is relatively easy for anyone to experience other culture food or other items like appeal etc. However for a long-term success, it is necessary for Chipotle to identify strategic options and evaluate the business and cultural environment against home country. The analysis will help identify the need and adjust any factors that need to be considered to be competitiveness against local and foreign establishments. The Chipotle strategy options should include testing of the environment, if the foreign market is compatible with the home market.
Okonkwo is the protagonist, so it makes sense for him to demonstrate a lot of pride which he undeniably does. Okonkwo is constantly bragging and boastful talking about how many men he or Umuofia has killed and is constantly scared to be perceived as weak. An early example of this is in chapter 7 when Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna. He is advised by his elders not to go and just stay at home. But Okonkwo goes anyway, which leads to him killing Ikemefuna because "He was afraid of being thought weak.
From being nothing in his village he rises to be a great, honorable, successful leader of umuofia. He also has a tragic flaw of being weak, failure and having fear that leads him to fail at things several times because of his fears. All of these failures then lead him to his suicide. Finally, he finds his own tragic fate because of his murder of the missionaries court messenger during his villages meeting. Though Okonkwo's life started out as one of the most successful and leading men of Umuofia but because of his violent and impulsive characteristics, even the most successful and well-respected man can fall from his
His father was the exact opposite of what the Igbo people stand for. Unoka, Okonkwo’s father, is a “coward [who] could not bear the sight of blood” (Achebe 6). In turn, Okonkwo became a ruthless warrior who was known across the different tribes. The worst aspect of Unoka is that he was considered to be a failure. This caused Okonkwo “even as a little boy [to resent] his father’s failure” (13).
The hatred that he had for his father he carried with him throughout his whole life. That hatred turned into him killing Ikemefuna and the messenger. Ikemefuna was thought of as a son and he killed him in fear of being considered weak in front of his clan members. That weakness was thought of his weakness which was considered a failure. At the end of the story Okonkwo ends up being just like his father which is ironic because he strived to be nothing like him.
Okonkwo is a very well-respected and independent man in Umuofia due to his titles and hard work. Even though he seems put together and stern, his life is dictated by fear. His fear of becoming like his father led him to helping in the murder of Ikemefuna, beating his wives and children, and disowning his oldest son, Nwoye. As a main character, Okonkwo remains pretty much the same throughout the book, his biggest issue being his inability to have compassion. Who might he not have compassion for and why?
Therefore, Okonkwo asks Nwoye to quit listening to his mother's womanly stories and hear the tales of war. It is only when Ikemefuna arrives that Nwoye begins to behave masculine. After much training, Okonkwo is pleased with Nwoye’s changed behaviour and for this, he credits Ikemefuna. Okonkwo’s good friend, Obierika is a contradicting character – with a title equivalent to Okonkwo’s – with a completely different belief system. Obierika does not shy away from his feminine characteristics, just like Unoka, he is compassionate and gentle.
However, Unoka the grown-up was a failure. He was very poor and was constantly in debt, which means that his wife and children (including Okonkwo) didn’t have much to eat. Unoka was very feminine, having a love for music and a hate for wars and blood. He died ten years ago, still a failure who had no titles and was still in debt. Ashamed of his deceased father, Okonkwo has become the complete opposite of his father.
In conclusion, i believe Okonkwo is a sympathetic man and he cares about the people around deeply. He may just have a hard way of showing it. Whether he beats his family, tries to kill them, abuses them. Nobody he has touched hasn’t died. So you can look at it that way and say he cares.
Out of all of his children, at least he takes much pride in one of them; that’s something that he never gets himself from his father while he grows up. In contrast to this softer behavior, Okonkwo is also a strong man. He is one of the greatest wrestlers in all of the villages when it comes to his physical strength. Not only that, he is mentally strong as well. He is able to do things that most men believe to be unthinkable; he displays all of the characteristics needed in an ideal warrior.
Okonkwo uses these traits to differentiate from Unoka and he even feels most like himself when he exhibits violent behavior in order to assert his power and authority over others. Literary critic Christopher Ouma affirmed Okonkwo’s genuine intention to change how he is regarded in society.