Okonkwo is the tragic protagonist inChinua Achebe’s Novel Things Fall Apartand isnick-named as “The Roaring Flame" which in many ways justifies that tab. He is tall and huge, his bushy eyebrows and wide, African nose give him “a very severe look” (chapter One). He is severe indeed, not only with the other members of his own family including his father Unoka and his son,Nwoye, or with even Ekwefi but also with his own self . Harsh in words as well as in deeds, he mercilessly drives himself so hard to achieve and to suppress within himself any self-betraying sign of "soft" or "womanly" sentiment or emotion. He dreads and fears failure of any kind in any field of worOkonkwo becomes an " inner-directed man "and has acquired, early in life, an "internalized", set of goal, which "insures" his "conformity" to his community or society. …show more content…
The insult inscription, agbala, in Igbo, " was not only another name for a woman, it could also mean a man who had no title " (Things Falls Apart,Ch 2). As a result of that early resentment of his father, Unoka 's failure and ( a perceived but perhaps not real ) weakness, and the resultant social pressure,Okonkwo deliberately sets himself an "internalized set of goals " which he should like to achieve to earn fame and name amongst his people . "And so Okonkwo was " ruled by one passion - to hate everything that his father Unoka had loved . One oh these things was gentlenass, and another was idleness “(Things Fall Apart,Ch