Okonkwo In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

Okonkwo, like none of us, does not like showing emotions other than anger to his fellow members of his clan. He thinks that affection is a sign of weakness, and it should not be shown. Okonkwo is a dominant leader of his clan which he rules by force. He is a great wrestler and has won many awards and gained achievements throughout his lifespan. However, Okonkwo does not want to end up like his father. His father was idle, scared of battle and also poor. Okonkwo’s family relationships make him a sympathetic character because of his passion for his family and an unsympathetic character because he did not want to end up like his father, making him aggressive and uneasy. Again, he feared that emotion was a sign of weakness. His care for his family

In Chinua Achebe’s book Things Fall Apart, a quote says, “‘Ask my dead father if he ever had a fowl when he was alive.’ Everybody laughed heartily except Okonkwo, who laughed uneasily because, as the saying goes, an old woman is always uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb. Okonkwo remembered his own father” (Achebe 21). Okonkwo had a small feeling of sympathy as he knows his father was very poor. The proverb says that an old woman is always uneasy when dry bones are mentioned and that is because old women have dry bones. Okonkwo sees the joke as offensive to some level, as it makes fun of his poor father. Another quote from the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe says, “But there was no doubt that he liked the boy. Sometimes when he went to big village meetings or communal ancestral feasts he allowed Ikemefuna to accompany him, like a son, carrying his stool and his goatskin bag. And, indeed, Ikemefuna called him father” (Achebe 28). Letting Ikemefuna accompany Okonkwo to village meetings or feasts show that Okonkwo is fond of Ikemefuna and their relationship is very close. Also, by letting Ikemefuna call Okonkwo father, it shows that Okonkwo considers Ikemefuna as one of his sons. Okonkwo can seem sympathetic, but he is really

He shows no mercy to even his loved ones. A quote from the book Things Fall Apart says, “Unfortunately for her, Okonkwo heard it and ran madly into his room for the loaded gun, ran out again and aimed it at her as she clambered over the dwarf wall of the barn” (Achebe 39). This shows his hot temper and how it can be harmful to others. Even a joke can not be taken lightly as Okonkwo’s wife nearly gets shot for it. Another quote says, “And when she returned he beat her very heavily. In his anger he had forgotten that it was the week of peace” (Achebe 24). This quote shows Okonkwo’s carelessness for other people. He did not let his wife off the hook when she went to go braid her hair even during the week of peace. It shows disrespect towards their people and their gods. Being unsympathetic is a sign of a person with good traits, according to