You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
Throughout the novel, Things Fall Apart, many characters played an important role. But the most prominent role played was by Okonkwo. Okonkwo is a completely self made individual that against all odds, rose to the challenge of life. No matter what life threw at him, he always met that challenge with brute force and determination. However, never did Okonkwo imagine that his downfall would be because of his own tragic flaw. Okonkwo's violent and rash nature made him difficult to work with and gave people the wrong image of who he was. He was so distracted by trying to be anyone other than his father that he lost himself along the way.…
- 258 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
Okonkwo owes his great success to his unrelenting warrior character, but when his culture begins to fade away and he does not change, it is also his downfall. From the beginning of the story, Okonkwo bases his entire personality…
- 687 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Okonkwo’s fear drives him to strive for success and honor in his clan; his fear is responsible for his high social status and his title. Okonkwo’s father had left him with absolutely nothing of value; no yams, no wives, not even a compound. He has to work very hard to build up his worth in the village and clan. “Any one who knew his grim struggle against poverty and misfortune could not say he had been lucky. If ever a man deserved his success, that man was Okonkwo.” (34, Achebe). Okonkwo couldn’t deal with just being happy, as Unoka had valued life, he needed the honor and the social status. He needed to wash away the stain that was his father. “Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond, His fame rested on solid personal…
- 257 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Okwonko did not have a solid family conection. Infact he absolutly resented his dad, and his oldest child did not want anything to do with him. "Even as a little boy he had resented 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." ( Achebe 13) Okonkwo despised everything his dad was and did. His dad played the flute, so Okonkwo thought that music was for the weak. Okonkwos dad was afraid of blood, so Okonkwo strived to be a great warrior. All of these qualities that he thought was weak, he tried to make sure his children never got invlovled in them, and because of this his oldest chiled Nwoye hated him. "Okonkwo 's first son ,Nwoye, was then twelve years old but he was already causeing his father great anxiety... he sought to correct him by constant nagging and beating."( Achebe 14) Okonkwo thought that Nwoye was becoming to much like his father, so he had to "correct" him and make sure that he wouldn 't become the very thing he hated most. In doing so he made his own son want nothing to do with him.…
- 898 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Okonkwo never understood the concept of going with the flow or adjusting to circumstances. It started in his childhood. His father, Unoka, “had taken no title at all and he was heavily in debt” (Achebe 8). He was a poor farmer and a coward in war. The people of Umuofia called him an agbala, which means woman. Okonkwo was immensely ashamed by him, and his life was definitely affected because of him. “Okonkwo did not have the start in life which many young men usually had. He did not inherit a barn from his father. There was no barn to inherit,” (Achebe 16). In a perfect world, his father would have been a bloodthirsty warrior, with many wives and children, and a number of cowries. Okonkwo was narrow-minded, and this quality backfired in the form of shame and discontent. “He had no patience with unsuccessful men. He had no patience with his father,” (Achebe 2). Unoka never had the money to support his family, and this disgraced Okonkwo. Okonkwo was never able to understand his father and his different ways. Since Unoka was his father, he couldn’t say anything to him, but in his heart and mind, he meant nothing to Okonkwo.…
- 805 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
The failure of Okonkwo’s father turned into hate in Okonkwo’s heart and that hatred lead…
- 3186 Words
- 13 Pages
Good Essays -
Okonkwo suffers the consequences of his actions being motivated by fear throughout Things Fall Apart. He damages his relationship with his family, and his actions lead to his eventual death. Okonkwo and his son Nwoye could never relate to each other. Both had totally different outlooks. Okonkwo was always trying to appear manly and trying to get Nwoye to appear the same way. These things were not really…
- 726 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Okonkwo’s overbearing pride in himself results in unforeseen consequences for his family and others which come in contact with him throughout the book. Case in point, when Okonkwo was told by an elder of the Umuofia not be getting involved with the killing of Ikemefuna because as he was told “that boy calls you father.” Prompting, Okonkwo to be exiled and sent to live with his mother for 7 years. Which resulted from the unfortunate killing of Ezeudu's son from the misfiring of a bullet. Rather than just listening Okonkwo’s pride slapped him in the face and being looked upon as weak was no option.…
- 480 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
He was masculine, hardworking, reputable, and wealthy. He didn't want to be like his father, a failure. Okonkwo believed his father was a failure because the man was very lazy, disgraceful, and poor. Over the years in his village it was said by the elders, “...if a child washed his hands...and so he ate with the kings.” This quote indirectly characterizes Okonkwo, displaying how he knew what he had to do if he wanted to be a great hero, furthermore developing his character as a young man. Towards the end of the novel one can imagine Okonkwo as a tragic hero because, like other tragic heroes, he has one major flaw. His main flaw develops from his fear of being like father, whom he dispised. He as well can't display his emotions because he doesn't want to look weak or sissyish, and when he does show any emotion, it is an uncontrollable rage. As a result of his flaws, Okonkwo has suffered countless tragedies, which ultimately leads to his ironic death. Okonkwo's tragedy was due to many things that happened in Umuofia, but the main reason was the arrival of the white missionaries, “Does the white man understand our custom about land?” (chpt. 20). Okonkwo says this, due to his…
- 778 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
A firm belief in his way of life forced Okonkwo into his success at the beginning of Things Fall Apart. As it is noted in chapters one to three, Okonkwo’s birth had left him much to be desired. “Okonkwo did not have the start in life which many young men usually had (Achebe 16).” Indeed, with a father like Unoka, a “lazy and improvident” man, it is hard to imagine how Okonkwo left his circumstances when his father was one that “was poor” and left “his (Unoka’s) wife and children had barely enough to eat” (Achebe 04 & Achebe 05). Yet these experiences forced Okonkwo toughen up early in life. Okonkwo’s “whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness” (Achebe 13). After considering how Okonkwo’s spent his entire childhood under the shameful shadow of his father, it makes sense that “even now he still remembered how he had suffered when a playmate had told him that his father was agbala” (Achebe 13).…
- 831 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Okonkwo feared of becoming like his father, so he made his own path to life and how he dealt…
- 1385 Words
- 6 Pages
Good Essays -
First, one of Okonkwo’s major weak points was his family. He tried not to let it show, but he cared deeply for his family. For example, when Ikemefuna was introduced into Okonkwo’s life, Okonkwo immediately grew a stronger bond with Ikemefuna than he had with his real children. After raising Ikemefuna for three years, Okonkwo was told Ikemefuna must be killed. Not only did he agree to it but he took part in the brutal murder. On page 61, Achebe writes, “Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak.” Although he loved Ikemefuna like his own son, he killed Ikemefuna to avoid being thought of as weak by his fellow clansmen. Another example of Okonkwo’s weakness when it came to his family was when he followed Ekwefi, Enzima and Chielo to the shrine. He wanted to ensure his daughter and wife’s safety. On page 112, Achebe says, “He allowed what he regarded as a reasonable and manly interval to pass and then gone with his machete to the shrine.”…
- 709 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Okonkwo’s unwillingness to submit passively to the established order and values takes him down. He has triggered an idea in his mind about how he wants to be and the way he wants his wives and mainly his children to be like him or better than him (Ezinma). Another example is greatly reflected in this quote which says “As he looked into log fire he recalled the name. He was a flaming fire.” (Achebe 153) Achebe used the fire to symbolize how he had an enormous enthusiasm in the beginning of the book, but towards the end of the book the fire literally burned his fervent along with the tribe’s culture.…
- 563 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
“Okonkwo did not taste any food for two days after the death of Ikemefuna. He drank palm-wine from morning till night, and his eyes were red and fierce like the eyes of a rat when it was caught by the tail and dashed against the floor.” (46) Some major consequences Okonkwo must deal with after killing the boy he once looked upon as a son, is losing the trust of his first-born son, Nwoye, and having to live with the guilt of killing Ikemefuna. This guilt caused Okonkwo to feel weak, something he never wanted to…
- 483 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
He hates everything that his father Unoka had loved(13). During the terrible year, his father said, “Do not despair. I know you will not despair. You have a manly and a proud heart. A proud heart can survive a general failure because such a failure does not prick its pride. It is more difficult and bitter when a man fails alone.”(24-25) What Unoka said is encouraging, but Okonkwo doesn’t appreciate it at all. The novel explicitly states that,“ perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fare of failure and of weakness...And so Okonkwo was ruled by one passion - to hate everything that his father Unoka had loved.” (13)In deep of Okonkwo’s heart, he didn’t afraid of anything but to become his father. So he is trying his best to be totally the opposite person from his father, that’s how he became a strong and self-made person.…
- 944 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays