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Okonkwo Being Unsympathetic

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Okonkwo is an unsympathetic type of character in the story “Everything Falls Apart”. This means that the character Okonkwo is not cared for by the reader because the readers can’t relate to him. And no one can relate to Okonkwo or like him because he is an abusive character and a really mean person throughout the whole story.This essay will prove this. The essay will prove that Okonkwo is an unsympathetic character that no one can relate to in the story. Okonkwo is an unsympathetic character, this is because of the way he act towards other characters throughout the book. Okonkwo is an abusive person to other characters like his wives and also disrespects others with his words. “The wife who has just been beaten murmured something.” In this quote Okonkwo beat up his wife because she was cutting off leaves of the banana tree to wrap some food for the festival that comes around the village. Okonkwo thinking that his wife is killing the tree he hit her and left her crying. “... Leaving her and her only daughter crying.” The readers should feel sorry for Ekwefi for what happened to her and be mad at Okonkwo’s anger issues as the cause to beat her up. …show more content…

Unokwa is a man of peace and he prays for his friends. “Unokwa prayed to their ancestors… health and protection from enemies.”Although he is an irresponsible person, this is because Unokwa borrows money but never pays the person back, in cause of piling debts. “They swore to never hand him anymore money because he would never pay back.” But this doesn't make Unokwa a really bad person because he cares for other people such as his ancestors and friends. This evidence shows that Okonkwo is a unsympathetic character, because Okonkwo hated everything that his father liked. That’s why Okonkwo is not a man of peace, but a man that is full of violence and hatred towards his

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Okonkwo's toxic masculine creates conflict with his father, his wife and children, and his religion/beliefs determining his death Okonkwo's persona is mostly dominated by fear of becoming just like his father as we see in the first chapters that were seen as soft and weak with the name Unoka. Okonkwo set his goal to become a strong man and wealthy warrior the opposite of his father. His fear led to cruel crimes for him, his family, and his clan example being- his controllable anger, causing people to fear him in a negative way such as the clan and his own family. Pg. 5 quotes “ Okonkwo's father was a very lazy and carefree man.

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It was so bad that even his children were scared of him. This quote shows that he can be unsympathetic towards his wives and children because instead of listening to them he chose to act out. They feel as if they have to be very careful of what they say because there might be a chance that he will hurt them. In conclusion Okonkwo overall is an unsympathetic person, However at time he could be sympathetic.

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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.

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