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Igbo Culture Success Essay

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The definition of success can mean many things to different people, and depending on the culture success can be measured by money, property, job type, and social status. Our culture views success as personal happiness. However, in Igbo Culture success means having a title, strength, money, property, extra food, and lots of wives. With Okonkwo's main focus being on success, his relationships between those closest to him were not good. The definition of success in Okonkwo's culture affected his relationship with his father, Nwoye and Ezinma.
The views of success in Okonkwo’s culture made him dislike his father because in the eyes of Okonkwo’s culture to be successful you had to have a title, strength, money, property, extra food, and lots of wives. Okonkwo disliked his father because he was a lazy, weak, unsuccessful coward who owed everybody money. This ultimately made Okonkwo ashamed of his father and made him state that “fortunately, among these people a man is judged according to his worth and not according to the worth of his father” (Achebe 6). This was important because it proves how much …show more content…

Okonkwo realizes that Ezinma has many characteristics that can lead her to great success but, she is a women and success is only for the men. Therefore, she will never be considered successful in the eyes of her society. In Okonkwo’s society, the tasks that men and women do are different and broken up by gender. For example, a simple question such as “can I bring your chair for you?” was answered with “no, that is a boy’s job” (31). This quote proves how Ezinma will never become successful by showing how she is not even allowed to do a simple task because it was considered a boy's job. Because of this, Okonkwo wishes that Ezinma was born a boy instead of a girl leading to a relationship not as good as it could

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