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Things Fall Apart Quote Analysis

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Manliness in some cultures has a big impact on their everyday life and social standing.The idea of manliness has affected the way, the character Okonkwo builds his relationship with his clan and his family. This can change people because if manliness is the only thing important to a person, it could affect his relationships with the people around him. In the novel Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe is revealing the theme, manliness, through Okonkwo 's actions, thoughts, and speech. The theme manliness was developed through Okonkwo’s actions.For example, in the book, the narrator said, “...Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought of weak”(61). This action that the narrator reveals to us, shows us that Okonkwo feels that he needs to kill Ikemefuna to prove his manliness. This is one example of a bad decision/action Okonkwo made because he was afraid of being thought of as weak. This action caused his son, Nwoye to …show more content…

Another way the theme was developed was through Okonkwo’s speech. For example, in the book, Okonkwo said, “If a man comes into my hut and defecates on the floor. What do I do? Do I shut my eyes? No! I take a stick and break his head. This is what a man does”(158). What Okonkwo is saying is that he should do whatever a man does because it is the manly thing to do. He should be brutal with everything he does, according to the author. He is speaking to Nwoye. Also in the book, Okonkwo said, “ If anyone prefers to be a woman, let him follow Nwoye now while I am alive so that I can curse him. If you turn against me when I am dead I will visit you and break your neck”(172). At this point, he is telling his other children that if they want to act not manly, they can follow their brother Nwoye, that he forbade. He is also affecting his relationship with his clansmen, for example the tone he talks to them, he acts like he does not care for their feelings and that he would kill them if they choose to follow in the steps of

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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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In the book, the author describers Okonkwo as a violent, masculine man who will confront anything that stands in its way. Okonkwo is a very helpful and friendly man. He always works on his yam farm to help and support his family. But his friendly personalities doesn 't translate to his thought process. Okonkwo is impulsive, he doesn 't think before he act.

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408 Words | 2 Pages

Okonkwo’s terrified of being feminine and commits to petty crimes. For example Okonkwo even joins in the group murder of his adoptive son, Ikemefuna, out of fear of seeming weak and cowardly. He tells the young boy he is going home to see his family. When the young boy is alone

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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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1027 Words | 5 Pages

Okonkwo hates change, and he feels that the missionaries have brought about change through their religion, which has started to affect other aspects of traditional Igbo life and its people. He feels that the men have gotten weaker, hence him feeling proud when the warriors start acting like warriors again in his mind when the village agrees some violent action must be taken against the white man. When the village crier announces that there will be a meeting to discuss what to do about the foreigners following Okonkwo and the other prisoners getting released, Okonkwo is very excited. However, once the meeting gets interrupted by court messengers during a speech about how the white man is desecrating their gods and ancestral spirits, things take a turn for the worst. As soon as the head messenger tells the crowd to disperse “Okonkwo drew his machete.

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786 Words | 4 Pages

When Ikemefuna runs towards him, “Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak” (Achebe 13). Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna because he is afraid someone will believe he is weak and similar to his unsuccessful father. He lets this fear of compassion and failing control his life and his decisions. When he is faced with a difficult choice he completes the action that will portray him as a man and not as an agbala, a woman.

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479 Words | 2 Pages

The Search for Nwoye’s Identity. Our lives leads us in different directions. Nwoye at first struggled with identity, but then he found himself through Christianity. For the first time he desired something other than satisfying his father.

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1119 Words | 5 Pages

Okonkwo is the protagonist, so it makes sense for him to demonstrate a lot of pride which he undeniably does. Okonkwo is constantly bragging and boastful talking about how many men he or Umuofia has killed and is constantly scared to be perceived as weak. An early example of this is in chapter 7 when Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna. He is advised by his elders not to go and just stay at home. But Okonkwo goes anyway, which leads to him killing Ikemefuna because "He was afraid of being thought weak.

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965 Words | 4 Pages

In the book “Things Fall Apart“ Okonkwo is a very strong man and from time to time he starts showing his true self. He has a lot of responsibilities and other things he has to do around the living environment and interact with lots of people. Okonkwo changes from being that strong man, to a man who feels like his tribe is not with him when he wants to go to war with the missionaries. For someone like Okonkwo a lot of people looks up to him and while in the tribe Okonkwo beats his wives and children. Not good behavior for someone who is supposedly looked at as strong.

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1212 Words | 5 Pages

According to Okonkwo’s tribe, the Igbo, masculinity is being strong, aggressive, and nourishing. Femininity is being weak, loving, compassionate, and devotional. Achebe highlights the definitions of masculinity and femininity to show that Okonkwo’s hypermasculinity causes his downfall. Okonkwo is trying to act too masculine and by completely rejecting feminine qualities, he sets up his destiny to be his downfall. The first instance in which things fall apart for Okonkwo is when a tribute from another village has to stay with Okonkwo for three years.

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674 Words | 3 Pages

Evidently, killing Ikemefuna, a child that saw Okonkwo as his father, took a toll on Okonkwo. Was it that he had sympathy for the child and felt bad? " When did you become a shivering old woman," Okonkwo asked himself, "you, who are known in all the nine villages for your valour in war? How can a man who has killed five men in battle fall to pieces because he has added a boy to their number?

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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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611 Words | 3 Pages

That is what a man does…” (P. 158-159). Okonkwo tries to act like a man, and does everything possible to give off a manly appearance but he associates cowardice with femininity. Throughout the novel Okonkwo does countless actions that lead him to dreadful places, but he couldn’t take it anymore and became powerless. “In a flash Okonkwo drew his machete.

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702 Words | 3 Pages

He was a caring man down in his heart but “his whole life was dominated by the fear, the fear of failure and of weakness” (Achebe 13), and his mission to become one of the greatest men of his clan. Okonkwo was devoted to masculinity, he put it above anything else preventing anyone from questioning his masculinity. When he felt a slight sign of weakness it reminded him of his fathers failure to being a true man not providing for his family or ruling women and his children, therefore “he was not really a man” (Achebe 53).There were many traits to being a masculine man but to Okonkwo the main one was ruling his wife and children, if any of them had disobeyed him he would beat them without hesitation or regret. Although Okonkwo is influenced by masculinity it is because the Ibo culture believes in men dominating women which leads their society to fall

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