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Things Fall Apart Fatherhood Quotes

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The importance of fatherhood in this novel is that a father is the provider, defender and teacher for their children. Okonkwo is also a warrior, leader and farmer which is opposite of his father, Unoka. Unoka is known as lazy, coward and in debt with all the people in the village. Okonkwo is afraid that Nwoye becoming like his father. Okonkwo abused his wives and beat Nwoye. His reasoning for hurting his family is tell himself that he is not like his father. He is a warrior and that he can hurt and kill people.
Okonkwo’s family loved Ikemefuna, the adopted son. He feels guilty for killing him but he can’t say no to their “god”. “The earth cannot punish me for obeying her messenger,” Okonkwo said. “A child’s fingers are not scalded by a piece of hot yam which its mother puts into its palm.”(Chapter 8, page 67). Okonkwo did not eat for two days because he feels bad for killing Ikemefuna. Okonkwo will do everything for their “god” even to kill his family. Nwoye fears for his life. If Okonkwo can kill his adopted son then there will be no hesitation to kill him. …show more content…

When the oracle ordered Okonkwo to kill Ikemefuna, Okonkwo followed the order and he killed his adopted son with his own hands. Nwoye’s got mad with his father and that lead him to convert to Christianity when the Europeans colonize his village. Nwoye’s question his faith and his father’s view, values and beliefs. “What moved Obierika to visit Okonkwo was the sudded appearance of the latter’s son, Nwoye, among the missionaries in Umuofia…And so Obierika went to Mbanta to see his friend. And he found that Okonkwo did not wish to speak about Nwoye. It was only from Nwoye’s mother that he heard scraps of the story” (Chapter 18, pages 143 – 144). This only shows that that relationship between a father and son is gone. Nwoye hated his father for killing his brother. Okonkwo hated Nwoye when he acknowledged new

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802 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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52 Words | 1 Pages

The movement west cheered some and worried others, but it angered many Native Americans. Tecumseh's speech focused Native American attention on the encroachments of whites onto the native lands. He addressed Choctaws and Chickasaws because he saw the threat that Americans pose and urge a united front to turn back white intrusions.

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387 Words | 2 Pages

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.

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786 Words | 4 Pages

Killing Ikemefuna shows that Okonkwo does not have absolute control over his emotions. As he sits in his obi afterward he is sad and defeated: “Okonkwo did not taste any food for two days after the death of Ikemefuna” (Achebe 63). Killing someone close to him causes Okonkwo to fall into a deep state of depression. Starving himself because of his grief reveals that he has succumbed to his fear. Okonkwo has committed his life to avoid a situation that causes him to appear weak, but refusing to eat outwardly demonstrates his pain and sorrow of killing the boy that called him father.

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1448 Words | 6 Pages

Finally, Okonkwo’s son, Nwoye, is similar to Unoka in that he is does not resemble the traditional strong and masculine adolescent boy; Nwoye doesn’t feel welcome in his family and culture, so he leaves his family and becomes a part of the Christian community. In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo believes the strength of his family is determined by each family member

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479 Words | 2 Pages

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.

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646 Words | 3 Pages

In the beginning of the story, Okonkwo was a very vigorous man who everyone loves. One day a killing happened leaving Okonkwo with a wife and a son, Ikemefuna. He grew to like the young boy, where he is different from his other children, On a fateful day, Okonkwo murders Ikemefuna. Okonkwo had a load of guilt for killing his adoptive son, Ikemefuna.

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466 Words | 2 Pages

Okonkwo’s actions sometime make him sympathetic. They make him sympathetic because his father and one of his wives and sometimes other characters in the story. They usually make him lose his temper and I understand why he loses his temper. The reason why Okonkwo’s family relationships make him sympathetic is because they usually give him a reason to lose his temper. A character in the story that he can not stand is his father Unoka.”

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944 Words | 4 Pages

Okonkwo starts to scorn Obierika for not coming to kill Ikemefuna. Obierika then said that Okonkwo shouldn’t have gone. What Okonkwo did is the type of deeds that the gods punish. It is against their traditions to kill a kinsmen. Okonkwo shows up for the negotiation of the bride price.

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1774 Words | 8 Pages

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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817 Words | 4 Pages

Okonkwo is a very well-respected and independent man in Umuofia due to his titles and hard work. Even though he seems put together and stern, his life is dictated by fear. His fear of becoming like his father led him to helping in the murder of Ikemefuna, beating his wives and children, and disowning his oldest son, Nwoye. As a main character, Okonkwo remains pretty much the same throughout the book, his biggest issue being his inability to have compassion. Who might he not have compassion for and why?

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325 Words | 2 Pages

However, Okonkwo went against the elders; he came to Ikemefuna’s execution and did nothing to stop it. Achebe explains, “Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak” (Achebe

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895 Words | 4 Pages

His fear of weakness and failure is derived from his father, Unoka’s failures, which ignite Okonkwo’s misogynistic views. Throughout his lifetime, Okonkwo associates femininity with weakness because of Unoka, who was called an “agbala” or woman by the people of Umuofia. Since women have this reputation for weakness, Okonkwo lives with constant fear that he will be given the same title as his father. Okonkwo’s first son, Nwoye’s effeminacy reminds Okonkwo of his own father. He says, "I have done my best to make Nwoye grow into a man, but there is much of his mother in him ."(Achebe, 66).

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1890 Words | 8 Pages

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.

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758 Words | 4 Pages

Okonkwo was also going through struggles of self-identity, and because of it he regrettably took part in killing Ikemefuna. This action broke Nwoye permanently, only strengthening the distance between him and his father. He saw the late Ikemefuna as a brother and a person he could look up to, he felt a feeling he had felt only one time before when he heard twin babies wailing in the Evil Forest. He never appreciated the violence that was embedded in the culture of his clan, but instead loved the stories meant for women. As a young child, Okonkwo would tell his sons stories of violence, and to stop the beatings he would receive for sharing his thoughts on them, Nwoye pretended to enjoy them.

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