Prompt 2 Okonkwo is driven by his hatred of his father and the fear he will become like him. Okonkwo saw his father, Unoka, as a coward and is ashamed to be his son. Everything that Okonkwo does is meant to set him apart from the legacy of his father. First, this is evident in his beating of his wives and even his aggression with his children. He is trying to show his strength and ensure he is not portrayed to be like his father: powerless and incapable.
Okonkwo constantly struggled to create the same masculine character in Nwoye that he made for himself and constantly found a reflection of his effeminate father, Unoka, in Nwoye. Chapter two describes the relationship between Okonkwo and Nwoye in Nwoye’s youth. “Okonkwo’s first son, Nwoye, was then twelve years old but was already causing his father great anxiety for his incipient laziness... He sought to correct him by constant nagging and beating” (13-14). Okonkwo’s efforts to change Nwoye’s resemblance of Unoka were causing their relationship to be pushed apart because of Okonkwo’s violence and Nwoye’s resistance.
Kedrick Brooms Me. Wulf E.L.A P.6 E.A- For Things Fall Apart How Okonkwo changed from the beginning and the end of the book Things Fall Apart.
Anas Ali Ms. Pratt English 10 HN 02 February 2023 In the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, readers are introduced to Okonkwo, a proud man who strives to be successful in his village of Umuofia. Despite his best efforts, his pride often gets in the way of his success. His relationship with his late father shapes much of his violent demeanor. Okonkwo's greatest weakness is his pride, which is constantly under threat both from his community and from himself.
Things Fall Apart Everyone has its own unique perspective on certain things. In doing so, one must interact or collide with another throughout life. In Things Fall Apart, the author, Chinua Achebe, attempts to communicate the concept of cultural collision while depicting the life of the Igbo tribe. He creates two main characters with contradicting characteristics and responses to a cultural collision in order to strengthen the theme:
Rick Godwin once said, “One reason people resist change is because they focus on what they have to give up, instead of what they have to gain”. In the novel “Things Fall Apart”, by Chinua Achebe Okonkwo resists changes when the british missionaries arrive and it causes conflicts throughout the novel. His defiance, warrior-like, manliness behavior leads him to his suicide when he realizes change sometimes can not be controlled. Okonkwo’s nobility and prosperity is revealed through his success and leadership within the clan. Aristotle stated in “On Tragedy” that “He must be one who is highly renowned and prosperous.”.
Okonkwo devotes his life to becoming the opposite of his unsuccessful father. This need to become masculine introduces his fear: “But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of
As a child, Nwoye is the frequent object of his father's criticism and remains emotionally unfulfilled. Okonkwo, “wanted Nwoye to grow into a tough man capable of ruling his father’s household when he was dead and gone to join the ancestors”(38). When Nwoye finds out that it is Okonkwo who killed a “brother” who he is extremely fond of, and grows very close with, he loses all appreciation for Okonkwo and decides to go against his father and his cultures.
Fear is the core cause of the dramatic shift of lifestyle for both Okonkwo and Nwoye. Through the management of reputation and the avoidance of their father’s likeness, Okonkwo and Nwoye built new lives for themselves. Okonkwo sought power and authority to prove his masculinity and make up for Unoka’s reputation as a weak man. He did this to the point where manliness became his character. Fearlessness and violence were masculine qualities that in Igbo culture signifies strength and influence.
When Nwoye decides to leave his family to pursue his faith, Okonkwo realizes “But he left hold of Nwoye, who walked away and never returned.” Leaving his family and clans, Nwoye is confronting a huge change in his life. This change may be pretty hard to make because he has to discover a new world himself. Recalling at the very beginning, it is impossible for Nwoye to leave because he is not masculine enough to take his own adventure. However, now, he is no longer a boy relied on his family; rather, he becomes a mature man to decide his future path himself and accept his coming of age.
Eventually, Okonkwo returned, but to a completely different society changed by the missionaries. Okonkwo developed throughout the novel because of his conflicts with society, which were primarily caused by his ideals of masculinity, his inability for adaption, and his relationships with others. Masculinity controlled Okonkwo’s life, influencing all his decisions and ideas, causing conflict in society. Fear was rooted at the basis of his masculine ideals, as his father, Unoka, the main source of his terror, was a failure in life, taking no title and often being described as a woman. Being constantly teased, Okonkwo lived his life, abhorring his father, hating everything he loved.
In the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, it showed that Okonkwo was always struggled throughout his life. Okonkwo’s strong personality is what led to his fate. First, Okonkwo’s harsh childhood started to led him towards his fate. Next, Okonkwo was selfish and took the highest titles and wanted to be at the top of his clan. Then, he was always worried about everything around him, which also led him to his fate.
He has three wives and eight children but unlike most men, he cares more for is daughter Enzimna than his oldest son, Nwoye because he thinks he is lazy, weak and effeminate. Okonkwo was always embarrassed by his father, Unoka, who was lazy and effeminate but that made him the strong leader who he became. When he was young, he defeated the best wrestler in the village, earning him lasting prestige. Okonkwo does whatever he can to look strong and is terrified of looking weak. As a resault,
It took a long time that he reached his goal. In Things Fall Apart” novel things fall apart because of Okonkwo character and colonialism. All the time Okonkwo had fear to become weak the traits that belong to his father and women. He had feared that his children would not become like him. Okonkwo did not show any emotion except emotion of anger.
Introduced as a strong and respected man, Okonkwo starts as such, but throughout the book many of his choices lead him down a path of tragic events. He is part of the Ibo society and culture, the native African culture of the story, which praises strength and masculinity while dejecting vulnerability and femininity from its men. The overarching theme in the novel Things Fall Apart is that clinging to strong devotions can cause one’s life to fall apart, exemplified through Okonkwo’s conflicts with himself, Ibo society, and Christian society. Okonkwo was devoted to suppressing his fears, leading him to make choices that shattered him.
