Duty In Things Fall Apart

Duty to society is more important than duty to family in Okonkwo and Creon’s eyes because they are both held in important positions and looked up to, but in the end they are both changed people and start to see that duty to family is more important than duty to their society.

I think that Creon and Okonkwo think very similarly even though they were raised very differently. Creon was raised to be a leader from birth, so he hold himself above anyone else and expects them to always bow to him and listen to his commands. On the other hand, Okonkwo’s father was looked down upon and shamed because he was a debtor and Okonkwo grew up wanted to be better than that and i believe he is scared of failure and being like his father. Either way, they

You can worship your own god. It is good that a man should worship the gods and the spirits of his fathers. Go back to your house so that you may not be hurt. Our anger is great but we have held it down so that we can talk to you.”(190). Even though the missionaries have done everything they can to harm the people, the people see them as people—perhaps misguided, but people. This shows the use of logical appeal. This compares to Antigone, where it quotes, “Remind ourselves that we are women and as such are not made to fight with men.”(193). This talks about their society’s view of men and women and to attempt to convince Antigone not to disobey Creon’s law and also it convinces the audience that Creon’s law should be obeyed because he has more authority since he is male. It also proves that Creon values himself above any women and he would never lower himself below a women under any circumstance because it would violate his beliefs and duty to his society. But compared to Antigone, where it says, The Gods, provoked, never wait to mow men down.”(241). By using basic reasoning, the leader of the chorus was able to convince Creon to free Antigone from her tomb. This is different from Things Fall Apart because Okonkwo let Ikemefuna be brought to his death and did nothing to stop it. Yes, he did feel remorse, but unlike Creon he let the boy get murdered because Okonkwo thought he would be

On the other hand, in Things Fall Apart, Ikemefuna comes to the village to satisfy a debt and he is placed into Okonkwo’s care. Okonkwo treats Ikemefuna like a son. When it’s time to complete the council’s order of killing Ikemefuna, Okonkwo goes with him on a final walk. In the end, it is Okonkwo who carries out the sentence to kill him. Okonkwo feels genuine remorse and “did not taste any food for two days” and “did not sleep at night” (63). Later, when his daughter is taken by a priestess to a temple in the middle of the night, he follows and offers to wait until she is released. It seems like Okonkwo is emotionally unavailable, but he has a deep want to take care of his family and his