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.
Okonkwo has a very hard time with his firstborn Nwoye, he’s lazy and Okonkwo asks him to do chores first, but when he sees that he doesn’t, he starts to beat him. “Okonkwo’s first son, Nwoye, was causing his father great anxiety for his incipient laziness, so he sought to correct him by nagging him and beating him.” It may seem harsh but he never tolerated laziness. Due to his father, he hated the sight of laziness, which is why he’d never want to be like him, or have his kids turn out that way. “He had no patience for unsuccessful men.
Do what you are told woman, Okonkwo thundered and stammered. When did you become one of the ndichie of Umuofia. And so Nwoye’s mother took Ikemefuna to her hut and asked no more questions.” Okonkwo treats his wives as servants, demanding that they do whatever Okonkwo pleases without questioning him. Not only speaking to her as belittling her, but calling her by woman.
Okonkwo feels ashamed of him in multiple circumstances in part one of the book, he feels as though Nwoye takes after his grandfather Unoka and displays some “lazy” behavior according to Okonkwo. Nwoye takes most after his mother and portrays “womanly” behavior and shows his compassionate and caring side. For example, before Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna, Nwoye overhears that Ikemefuna must return to his home village Nwoye bursts into tears only to have his father beat him heavily for it. “ ‘Nwoye overheard it and burst into tears, whereupon his father beat him heavily’”
Okonkwo was a big supporter of physical and verbal abuse in his home, especially towards his wives and Nwoye. To Okonkwo, physical abuse was another language. This is how he spoke, and punished, on the occasion of the abuse, and how he had handled the situation. Women was treated poorly in Umuofia because men believe that they were weak and in inadequate. “ Even as a little boy Okonkwo had represented his father 's failure and weakness, and even now he still remembered how he had suffered when a playmate had told him that his father was Agbala.
He is abusive to his family and known for his ill-timed outbursts. However, he is still respected as a warrior and as a successful farmer. Okonkwo shows sympathy, by the hard work he undertakes to take care of his family when
Although they were father and son, Okonkwo and Nwoye were never very close because of how different they were. “Nwoye knew that it was right to be masculine and to be violent, but somehow he still preferred the stories that his mother used to tell…” (Achebe 53). This shows that even though Nwoye didn’t share the same
He showed his sympathy by providing for his family and Ikemefuna. Okonkwo showed that he was unsympathetic by having no patience and beating his wives and
He is thought to be lazy and weak and does not live up to the expectations that his father has for him as his oldest son. Okonkwo’s biggest problem with his son is that he is reminiscent of Okonkwo’s father. After the arrival of Ikemefuna, Okonkwo began to see positive changes in his son. He began to adopt more manly attitudes giving Okonkwo hope for him. “He wanted Nwoye to grow into tough young man capable of ruling his father’s household when he was dead and gone to join the ancestors” (52).
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.
With Okonkwo, his detrimental decisions to control who Nwoye causes his relationship with Nwoye to deteriorate. When Okonkwo asks Nwoye to sit with him in his obi, Nwoye “was afraid of him and slipped out of the hut as soon as he noticed him dozing.” (44). Later, when Okonkwo realizes that Nwoye was at a Christian church, he angrily beats him as the values of the church did not connect with him, causing his only son to turn to exile. The biggest consequence of his fear is found during the concluding stages of the successful Christian colonization.
[Okonkwo] is not my father” (144). Nwoye denying that Okonkwo is his father shows the amount of hatred towards his father, enough to deny his significant position in Nwoye’s family. Not only had it affected Nwoye’s development as a man, he had also developed a similar character trait as Unoka in which, he despises the sight and the use of violent
The way the gender roles in his society were set up was the women had to always obey the men. This causes Okonkwo to be strict so he can manage his household. But the effect
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).
Is violence ever the answer? The book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a fictional story about the Ibo tribe during the beginning years of the colonization of Africa. The protagonist Okonkwo is a quick-tempered and abusive man who leads a successful life in the village of Umuofia until he is forced into exile. While in exile in his motherland, European missionaries begin to show up to spread their faith. After returning from exile, the missionaries have grown in strength and control.
