How Are Okonkwo And Unoka Alike

521 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: How does achebe present the customs of the people when things fall apart

In “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe, Unoka and Okonkwo are father and son but they are written in such a way that they can be described as foil characters with very little characteristics in common. For example, one of the few things they both have in common is that they were both admired by the Umuofian community (even if it was for two different reasons). Unoka was admired for his proficient ability to play the flute even though he was considered an ‘agbala’. “Sometimes another village would ask Unoka’s band and their dancing egwugwu to come and stay with them and teach them their tunes”. Okonkwo, however, was praised for his achievements, ambitions, and success in life. “Okonkwo was clearly cut for great…so he ate with kings and elders”. …show more content…

Unoka expressed his love to his children by consoling them in times of hardship and by never beating and abusing them. “Do not despair. I know you will not despair. You have a manly and a proud heart”. Nevertheless, Okonkwo showed his love by beating and punishing his family to stamp out the laziness so that his children can end up doing great things. “Okonkwo wanted his son to be a great farmer and a great man. He would stamp out the disquieting signs of laziness which he already saw in him”. Finally, both Okonkwo and his father died a coward’s death with no titles. Unoka died aboveground in the Evil Forest with no titles by a disease that is considered an ‘abomination’ by the Umuofian’s. “He died of the swelling which was an abomination to the earth goddess. Okonkwo also died a coward’s death by committing suicide. His suicide made the two titles he earnt lose meaning as suicide was also considered a shameful death. “It is an abomination for a man to take his own

Show More
Related

  • Okonkwo's Self-Destructive Masculinity in Things Fall Apart

    2752 Words  | 6 Pages

    Okonkwo is known throughout Umuofia to be extremely masculine. He rarely shows signs of fear or weakness. This is because Oknokwo promised himself he would be the complete opposite of his father Unoka. Unoka had passed away ten years prior to when the story takes place but he has always been remembered as a weak, lazy, poor man who could barely provide for his family. He was always in debt and didn't care to work, he would play his flute all day everyday if he was able to. "People laughed at him because he was a loafer, and they swore never to lend him any more money because he never paid back" (5). Unoka was the laugh of the town and Okonkwo would never allow himself be that.

    Read More

  • Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart

    941 Words  | 2 Pages

    Okonkwo’s first and most distinctive flaw is his fear of failure. Many people would agree that this flaw is driven by the fear of becoming his father, but Okonkwo takes this fear too far. Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, was known for being a very lazy and carefree man. He also had notoriety of being “…poor and his wife and children had barely enough to eat.” (Achebe 5). A big tradition in Umuofia is having a father who is supposed to teach his children right and wrong. In Okonkwo’s case, these lessons had to be self-taught. Okonkwo had to commit to his own understandings of what defined a “good man” and to him that was the exact opposite of his father. Because of his fear to be seen as weak, Okonkwo even murders a child that calls him father. Ikemefuna was sent to live with Okonkwo because someone was murdered in a nearby village. An example of Okonkwo’s ill-hearted actions are shown in the following quote: “As the man drew up and raised his machete, Okonkwo looked away. He heard the blow. He heard Ikemefuna cry, ‘My father, they have killed me!’ as he ran towards him. Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak.” (Achebe 61). The fact that he kills Ikemefuna shows that his reputation is more important than the life of a child. Okonkwo’s fear permits him to receive more respect from his tribe, but only because it inclines him to do better than anyone else.

    Read More

  • Things Fall Apart Masculinity Analysis

    877 Words  | 2 Pages

    His constant fight of not being like his father sets him up for failure. While Okonkwo constantly fights to not be like his father he mirrors some of his father's characteristics. Before Okonkwo kills himself he loses his possessions, title, and clan, his father did not have any real possessions or a title. Then he kills himself which is not masculine and is called a agbala which his father was known as. All of Okonkwo’s hard work and attention to details does nothing for him but end up like Unoka who he strived untiring to not even be seen as

    Read More

  • Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart

    530 Words  | 2 Pages

    When Okonkwo cut down the guard, he made the swift assumption that his clansmen were as passionate about fighting colonialism as him and would follow him into war. When he found out otherwise, he could not understand what had happened to his village. The next place he was seen was hanging from a noose in a selfish show of hypocrisy. In the end, Okonkwo's status among his tribe counted for nothing because his own despair over the colonization of his village led him to kill himself. His whole life Okonkwo strived not to look weak like his father, but in the end he took the cowards way out, suicide.

    Read More

  • Things Fall Apart

    1974 Words  | 4 Pages

    Okonkwo is often described as being similar to characters in Greek tragedies. Okonkwo knew that the end of his clan was coming, and that they would do nothing to prevent it from happening. He took his life out of desperation. He had struggled his whole life to become a respected member of his community, and suddenly his world is turned upside down and changed forever because of an accident. Okonkwo sees that he is fighting a losing battle, so he quits. Suicide was one of the biggest offenses that could be committed against the earth, and Okonkwo?s own clansmen could not bury him. Okonkwo?s death symbolizes the end of patriarchy in Umuofia. The last page of the book is from the point of view of the white Commissioner, who notes that he wants to include a paragraph on Okonkwo?s life in his book entitled The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of Lower Niger. Okonkwo?s struggles, triumphs and defeats are all reduced to a paragraph, much like his culture and society will be reduced.

    Read More

  • Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

    975 Words  | 2 Pages

    Okonkwo is “a man of action, a man of war” (7) and a member of high status in the Igbo village. He holds the prominent position of village clansman due to the fact that he had “shown incredible prowess in two intertribal wars” (5). Okonkwo’s hard work had made him a “wealthy farmer” (5) and a recognized individual amongst the nine villages of Umuofia and beyond. Okonkwo’s tragic flaw isn’t that he was afraid of work, but rather his fear of weakness and failure which stems from his father’s, Unoka, unproductive life and disgraceful death. “Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and weakness….It was not external but lay deep within himself. It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father.” Okonkwo’s father was a lazy, carefree man whom had a reputation of being “poor and his wife and children had just barely enough to eat... they swore never to lend him any more money because he never paid back.” (5) Unoka had never taught Okonkwo what was right and wrong, and as a result Okonkwo had to interpret how to be a “good man”. Okonkwo’s self-interpretation leads him to conclude that a “good man” was someone who was the exact opposite of his father and therefore anything that his father did was weak and unnecessary.

    Read More

  • Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

    741 Words  | 2 Pages

    Then there is a staggering list of achievements. Okonkwo is a strong character but thinks only inwardly - especially towards his father - which will be discussed further in this essay. As a child Okonkwo was neglected by his father and even later in his life did not speak with him until of course his father was on his deathbed, this made him very angry. Okonkwo always saw his father Unoka as lazy. Okonkwo worked hard to remove any trace of laziness from his personality.

    Read More

  • Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

    1111 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...ociety so weakens and depresses Okonkwo that he takes his own life by hanging. Hanging is looked to as a very disgraceful death in today’s society and ancient societies.

    Read More

  • Things Fall Apart Adapt To Change Essay

    622 Words  | 2 Pages

    Since his childhood, Okonkwo has always been ashamed of his father, Unoka. Unoka was rarely able to feed his children, which made Okonkwo scared and embarrassed. When he went out into Umuofia, he found that the villagers had very similar opinions towards his father. As...

    Read More

  • Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

    659 Words  | 2 Pages

    Okonkwo was well known through out the nine villages because of his achievements in the tribe. Okonkwo had a great fear of becoming like his father. This had a rather large impact on his life and how his personality. Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, was a lazy man whereas Okonkwo was a hard worker, Okonkwo ruled his house with a heavy hand and he was a man of war.

    Read More

  • Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

    2074 Words  | 5 Pages

    ...y had let the other messenger escape. They had broken into tumult instead of action" (Achebe 205). Everything he lived for and believed in was going to be taken away by the white men. They had control over everything. He did not want to see that happen so he took his own life. Yet, this is ironic because, in doing so, he was committing an act which was considered one of the worst actions a member could do in the Ibo society. Throughout the story we see how strong Okonkwo's personal beliefs were and how much they meant to him. Beliefs, both personal and those of the society someone is born into, play a major role in their life. This story is an example of what happens when those beliefs are taken away and others are forced upon a person. Everyone needs to believe in something, and things fall apart when they no longer can.

    Read More

  • Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart – Finding Unoka in the Mirror

    1662 Words  | 4 Pages

    “With a father like Unoka, Okonkwo did not have the start in life which many young men had. He neither inherited a barn nor a title, or even a young wife. But in spite of these disadvantages, he had begun even in his father’s lifetime to lay the foundations of a prosperous future” (18). Most of his accomplishments were despite his father, whom Okonkwo loathed, but with whom I connected. In the novel, I relate more to Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, a much more laid back character. Like Unoka, I am in love with life, lazy, not worried about tomorrow, and deeply in debt.

    Read More

  • Okonkwo’s Resistance to Change in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

    1470 Words  | 3 Pages

    From an early age, Okonkwo was ashamed of his father, Unoka, who was unable even to feed his family. The unpredictability of receiving enough food at a young age was enough to inspire fear and embarrassment in Okonkwo who associated this embarrassment with his father and was given further justification for these feelings when he went out into Umuofia, discovering that the other villagers held similar opinions of Unoka. When he was old enough, Okonkwo began farming his own yams because “he had to support his mother and two sisters […] And supporting his mother also meant supporting his father” (25). Okonkwo’s self-reliance was admired, valued in the community where “age was respected […] but achievement was revered” (12); this admiration gave him feelings of security, and the respect of his peers pushed him towards greater self-respect, distancing him from his father. The security and respect became related in his mind as he viewed his acceptance in the community as his life’s goal and Okonk...

    Read More

  • Things Fall Apart Book Report- 11 Pages Long. I Got An A

    2728 Words  | 6 Pages

    Unoka – Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, was considered lazy and a failure. He never worked and always took from others. Okonkwo considered him a complete embarrassment and vowed never to be like his father. He had to hate what Unoka once loved, and never borrow money or stop working.

    Read More

  • An Identity Crisis in 'Things Fall Apart'

    1770 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...rgivable. The clan considered "it an abomination for a man to take his own life" (Achebe 207). Okonkwo went from being someone that his clansman respected to a stranger that no one cared about.

    Read More

More about How Are Okonkwo And Unoka Alike

Open Document