Okonkwo In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

In the novel Things Fall Apart, there is a strong man by the name of Okonkwo. A man so strong that no one could beat in all the villages. Okonkwo believes it is childish to show weakness, but his belief of this goes a little too far. In Things Fall Apart Okonkwo has a father by the name of Unoka. Unoka was a man of no care he owed money but would never pay, this caused people to dislike him. The text states, “Unoka was of course, a debtor, and he owed every neighbor some money, from a few coweries to quite substantial amount.” Okonkwo was not at all proud of his father. Okonkwo believed in always being better then him in fact Okonkwo's greatest fear was to be like his father. Okonkwo's greatest fear to be like his father motivates him to be a strong man. Okonkwo believed in being the strongest and this leads him to be abusiveto his family, the text states. “Okonkwo ruled his house with a heavy hand.” Okonkwo was very brutal because he wanted things done his onl,

Achebe does this bymaking Okonkwo the mightiest of the villages, Okonkwo being mighty and the best wrestler in the villages this would leave you to belive he is more like a hero, but Achebe, uses Okonkwo's temper to show what a man he really is, the text states. “When he walked, his heels hardly touched the ground, and he seemed to walk on springs, as if he was going to pounce on somebody. “And he did pounce on people quite often.” This shows how Okonkwo knew he was the best so he would brutally beat people just because he was impatient. This shows how the theme of the story is created, by Okonkwo's outrageous temper. Okonkwo having his outrageous temper and his addiction to never show weakness, leads him to kill a boy he looked at as his own. Okonkwo learns from this, that never showing weakness is not always a bad thing, and sometimes maybe he should hold back, but this doesn't mean he