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Basic text: Okonkwo's character in few words
Okonkwo character analysis essay
Basic text: Okonkwo's character in few words
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No one likes to be told how to live, especially if they do not wish to follow a certain custom. In the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe talks about Okonkwo a successful, strong young man that is controlled by fear of weakness and failure. This great fear came due to his father. His father Unoka was a “lazy and improvident and was quite incapable of thinking about tomorrow” (Achebe 4). Therefore Okonkwo fear was resembling his father. This caused Okonkwo to become an unloving husband and parent. Whereas Nwoye bared opposite characteristics of his father because he was emotionally unfulfilled and sympathetic. By Okonkwo’s fear of being like his father and Nwoye’s sensitivity and lack of masculinity caused the shape of both their generations to be curved in ways that Okonkwo tuff love causes Nwoye to become his complete opposite. …show more content…
In the case of Unoka he had achieve no titles and was a debtor. Unoka had a great childhood and loved the good fare and the good fellowship but “Unoka, the grown-up, was a failure” (Achebe 5).He was said to be poor and his wife and children barely had enough to eat, this caused people to laugh at him because he was a slacker. This caused Okonkwo to have no patience with unsuccessful men also “He had no patience with his father” (Achebe 4). Therefore Unoka and Okonkwo had no father and son relationship, he despised he father so much that he forgot to be a father to Nwoye. Due that his father was such a lazy man he also had to support his own mother and sister which was not his duty. This very situation caused Okonkwo to be
"Man, when perfected, is the best of animals, but, when separated from law and justice, he is the worst of all." (Aristotle). In Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo is living proof of Aristotle's statement. Although he is arguably the most powerful man in Umuofia, His personal flaws of fear of failure and uncontrollable anger do not allow him true greatness as a human being.
There were only 1,500 estimated people in the country of Nigeria in the late 1800s. In the book things fall apart most of all of them would know about Okonkwo the famous.In the book Things Fall Apart it follows the life of a famous man among the nine villages in Nigeria. Okonkwo had to go through many misfortunes as him and his culture is being tested by outsiders.In the beginning of the book it fallows mainly Okonkwo in his struggles then it goes into what he has to deal with when the missionaries. In the world, people have to uphold an image and that was what Okonkwo was doing and it slowly got harder and harder to keep the image and that is when things fell apart.
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.
Okonkwo had dreams, some of his dreams were fulfilled while others weren’t. Okonkwo's dreams were to be successful and better than his father which happened because he was one of the greatest, well known and respected men in the tribe of Umuofia. His other dream was for his son Nwoye to be just like him which didn’t happen since Nwoye was not happy with the way he was being treated and he went and joined the white men church in spite of his father.
Everyone in the past, present, and future strive for success. People of all ages and generations aspire to be successful in one way or another. One of the most prominent ways to define success is having lots of money and lots of respect. The desire for money and titles can tear a life apart. In, Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo’s desire for status is a negative force that is ruling his life.
One of the most commonly asked questions about the novel Things Fall Apart is: why did Achebe choose a tragic hero, Okonkwo, as the main character in the story. According to Nnoromele, “A hero, in the Igbo cultural belief system, is one with great courage and strength to work against destabilizing forces of his community, someone who affects, in a special way, the destinies of others by pursuing his own. He is a man noted for special achievements. His life is defined by ambivalence, because his actions must stand in sharp contrast to ordinary behavior”(Nnoromele). In my opinion, he chose this type of hero to show the correlation between Okonkwo’s rise and fall in the Igbo society to the rise and fall of the Igbo culture itself. Many commentators have come up with various reasons for Okonkwo’s failure in the novel. Some say that it is just his chi that causes him to be a failure; however others believe it is because he is incapable of dealing with his culture deteriorating before his eyes. In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo’s character as a tragic hero is a result of his chi, inability to cope with the destruction of the Igbo culture, and ultimately, his own suicide.
The character of Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart was driven by fear, a fear of change and losing his self-worth. He needed the village of Umuofia, his home, to remain untouched by time and progress because its system and structure were the measures by which he assigned worth and meaning in his own life. Okonkwo required this external order because of his childhood and a strained relationship with his father, which was also the root of his fears and subsequent drive for success. When the structure of Umuofia changed, as happens in society, Okonkwo was unable to adapt his methods of self-evaluation and ways of functioning in the world; the life he was determined to live could not survive a new environment and collapsed around him.
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...
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.
If one has a personal flaw, they should try to subdue it, especially if it would eventually kill them. Okonkwo and Steph don't. Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart is about Okonkwo's struggle against his tribe, foreigners, and himself. Okonkwo often loses his temper, which leads him to rashness. Katey Schultz's “Deuce Out” is about Steph attempting to get through life and eventually joining the army while her brother is fighting a war. While her brother is gone, she begins to dislike the way her life is going, and decides to join the army after her brother. In “Deuce out”, Steph has the character flaw of acting before thinking, and assuming that what they did is right. In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo has the same flaw.
In the novel, “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe, there are two examples of a hero and a coward. The main character, Okonkwo, is the example of the hero and his father is the example of a coward. The traits that make Okonkwo a hero is his determination, strength, and wealth. He is a self-made hero, and due to his hardworking attitude, he is viewed positively in the eyes of his tribe. His father, however, was lazy and poor. He couldn’t provide for his family and was heavily in debt. Due to this, he was viewed negatively in the eyes of the tribe. Based on Igbo culture, a hero during these times would have to be hardworking and determined, family-oriented, and a wealthy and successful person.
A character with a tragic flaw is one who consistently makes a particular error in their actions and this eventually leads to their doom. Okonkwo, a perfect tragic character, is driven by his fear of unmanliness, which causes him to act harshly toward his fellow tribesmen, his family and himself. He judges all people by how manly they act. In Okonkwo’s eyes a man is a violent, hard working, wealthy person and anyone who does not meet these standards he considers weak.
In the beguiling story, “Things Fall Apart,” an esteemed leader, Okonkwo, earns scrupulousness and fame on his journey to become paramount despite his father’s weakness. Throughout the story, there were several parts that I related to on a spiritual level. One part in particular, was when Okonkwo dominates his family’s lives by being controlling and extremely anesthetized, which reminded me of similar men that I have encountered in my life. Furthermore, Okonkwo loses his temper at exceedingly inappropriate times, which also reminds me of multifarious human beings that I have dealt with. Lastly, the depravity of when Okonkwo gets exiled strongly reminds me of when Napoleon Bonaparte becomes banished as well.
Two passages from the story Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, provide the reader with a more profound understanding of Okonkwo, and his son Nwoye. The two do not have a good relationship and it becomes worse as the story progresses. Throughout the book the two become increasingly distant and it is apparent that Okonkwo is very disappointed in his son. After the death of Ikemefuna, Nwoye begins to question many aspects of his life, especially religion. As the Christian missionaries spend more time with the members of the village, Nwoye becomes interested in this new religion. The first passage I have chosen discusses Nwoye’s feelings about Christianity.
Chinua Achebe's novel, Things Fall Apart, uses the changes in African tribal culture brought about by European colonization to illustrate the evolution of the character Okonkwo. As Okonkwo leads his life, his experiences, personality and thought are revealed to the reader. The obstacles he faces in life are made numerous as time progresses. Okonkwo's most significant challenge originates within himself. He also encounters problems not only when in opposition to the white culture, but in his own culture, as he becomes frustrated with tribal ideals that conflict with his own. The last adversary he encounters is of the physical world, brought upon himself by his emotional and cultural problems. The manner through which Okonkwo addresses his adversaries in Things Fall Apart creates the mechanism that leads to his eventual destruction.