Okonkwo's Goal In Things Fall Apart

Things Fall Apart Essay

Raising a child should never have one goal, but multiple. The book “Things Fall Apart” was written by Chinua Achebe. Okonkwo wants to raise his son to be the opposite of his father Unoka whereas, he raises him with fear and abuse. One of the goals in the book is to show whether Okonkwo accomplishes his goal. Okonkwo wants to be the perfect dad for Nwoye so, he does not turn into his grandfather Unoka, but is he doing it the right way? Okonkwo is raising Nwoye to be the opposite of his father Unoka. Okonkwo is ashamed of his father Unoka because when he “died he had taken no title at all and he was heavenly in debt.” Therefore, Okonkwo wants to raise Nwoye to be a successful outgoing, great farmer, villager and man.

Children learn from their parent’s mistakes and one thing Okonkwo learned was to rule by one thing” passion- to hate everything that his father Unoka had loved. One of those things was gentleness and another was idleness.” Therefore, he wants to raise Nwoye with fear and abuse since, his father raised him with gentleness. Okonkwo is afraid Nwoye will “be found to resemble his father” so, he treated him and Ikemefuna “with a heavy hand.” Okonkwo was “fond of the boy” but, he did not “express any emotion openly, unless it be the emotion of anger.” Therefore,” when Okonkwo heard that he would not eat any food he came into the hut with a big stick in his hand and stood over him while he swallowed his yams, trembling.” This shows that Okonkwo is raising Nwoye with fear so, he will raise up to be a successful man who will do what he is told no matter what and not be lazy. Okonkwo is scaring Nwoye that he will beat him so, he will listen to him. Everything Okonkwo is doing is because he “was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and weakness.” This indicates that everything Okonkwo is doing is because he is afraid Nwoye will turn out to be like

Okonkwo wants Nwoye “to be a great farmer and a great man” however, Nwoye is showing signs of laziness like his grandfather Unoka. Since, Nwoye was starting to be lazy, Okonkwo would “correct him by constant nagging and beating.” Okonkwo thought beating him was teaching him to not be lazy and be a great man. However, it just made turn and push away. Okonkwo’s relationship with Nwoye “is turning father hating into a new trend into the family.” Okonkwo hated his father Unoka and wanted to be nothing like him and now Nwoye hates his father Okonkwo and wants to be nothing like him. This means Nwoye wants to be like his grandfather Unoka because he was lazy and that is the opposite of his father Okonkwo- a hard