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Who Is Okonkwo In Things Fall Apart

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In the novel Things Fall Apart written by author Chinua Achebe, the main character Okonkwo’s life is all surrounded by many conflicts that he has to resolve, because he is the chief, leader of his village in a Nigerian forest. After his father Unoka, who was a member of the village died. Okonkwo rules and takes care of the village and the people that live inside as well. But, okonkwo doesn’t not want to end up looking like a shadow of his father, because his father Unoka was lazy and seen as a weak person. Okonkwo is affected very much from this, and not wanting to be seen as his father, Okonkwo is a real hard worker. He is really different from his father, but his mind is always on caring about whether he’ll turn out like his father. Okonkwo’s weakness is always being somewhat paranoid about people’s thoughts of him, it makes him do extraordinary things around. Okonkwo thinks too much of himself, and the way people think of him. His motto is to be at his best. “ When he was in his youth, he brought honor to his village by beating Amalinze the cat in a wrestling contest ” (Achebe pg.3). This quote shows that he has always had that success mindset. He liked challenges. Since he was a fierce man, his 12 year old son Nwoye, is lazy and Okonkwo is constantly …show more content…

It was when he himself hung himself. “Then they came to the tree from which Okonkwo’s body was dangling, and they stopped dead” (Achebe pg. 207). What this quote shows in the novel is that Okonkwo wasn’t able to handle the situation in the village. With Okonkwo always being in a leader mindset all the times, he was usually a hot head. He couldn’t talk situations through. He thought force and violence was the answer. So when Jehovah Witness came in, he killed the man who had done nothing wrong. Although it was a controversial attack because it was during peace week, some people in the village believed that he disrespected the tradition and broke the

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