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How Is Okonkwo Selfish

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Okonkwo is a man of many different views than those of regular parents seen in the book “Things fall apart.” He seems like a harsh man yes, but he just wants what is best for his children. He rules with a very heavy hand as well in order to have his children grow to be even stronger then him and not show laziness. He wants his children to know hard work can only be done if you’re able to show you can handle any obstacle in your path. In all honesty, laziness should be of no virtue, if one does not wish to be nagged or punished.

Okonkwo has a very hard time with his firstborn Nwoye, he’s lazy and Okonkwo asks him to do chores first, but when he sees that he doesn’t, he starts to beat him. “Okonkwo’s first son, Nwoye, was causing his father great anxiety for his incipient laziness, so he sought to correct him by nagging him and beating him.” It may seem harsh but he never tolerated laziness. Due to his father, he hated the sight of laziness, which is why he’d never want to be like him, or have his kids turn out that way. “He had no patience for unsuccessful men. He had no patience for his father.” He saw Nwoye become lazy at times, which is why he was so harsh, because he doesn’t want him to be unsuccessful. One should be able to …show more content…

Okonkwo never truly like laziness so he’d always beat Nwoye or nagg at him due to his laziness in hopes he wouldn’t be lazy anymore. He took a liking to Ikemefuna because he was a hardworking kid,later on Nwoye started to not be lazy and actually like hardwork due to Ikemefuna being an older brother to him. Okonkwo saw this and was inwardly pleased with both boys but very pleased due to his son’s development. I feel Okonkwo is a good man at heart, he just has a very, very tough shell, beating is bad yes, but he just doesn’t want his kid to be a lazy non-hardworking man, so i could get the understanding of that from

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