Okonkwo’s lack of father figure leads him to the perspective of fear of failure and weakness this is what he is driven by because in his life he doesn’t have a role model that he can look up to in order to overcome that fear or that adaption to the new society. Okonkwo’s biggest obstacles throughout this story is fear, lack of self worthiness, and culture values.
Thesis: Okonkwo feels lost in the new society he doesn’t know where he belongs but all he knows is that he has a big immense passion for being a wrestler. In between he believes that there is a problem because he lacks of self worth, fear and cultural /value identity in himself. In order to overcome these problems he has to face the reality that society has brought him to. He
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The biggest obstacle for Okonkwo was masculinity because as a man you 're supposed to be strong, muscular and not be scared of anything but for Okonkwo it wasn’t like that because if he ever cried, backed down from a fight or was not the head of the household he was judged because in the Igbo culture that’s how men were defined for. For example (“To show affection was a sign of weakness; the only worth demonstrating was strength”) 4:28. In this quote Okonkwo didn’t show fear/weakness or affection to no one he didn’t want to be seen or classified as a woman. In the Igbo culture masculinity was the main theme theme because the men back then had to be very strong couldn’t show love to his wife or even his own daughter it was a fierce characteristic the men had to have it was sort of how the tribe survived without these qualities you were basically nothing. As masculinity played a role among the tribe the other main target was fear having fear is a good and a bad quality because you can overcome the fear you 're scared of or you can either suck it up and have that fear for the rest of your life and do nothing about it but that decision is made personally you as the person …show more content…
In the same way Okonkwo died because he couldn’t take it anymore he died knowing what he was valued or known for he knew he wanted to be different from society expected him to but it was hard for him to come up to people and let them know “How” OR “Why” he did what he did. To conclude this essay, as it has been mentioned I chose the topics of: Fear, Masculinity, and Cultural Values because reading “Things Fall Apart”By: Chinua Achebe gave me way more reasons and a clear understanding what Okonkwo wanted and how he saw seeing himself all he ever wanted was not to become like his dad he didn’t want to be like his dad he just wanted a chance to show people how he saw himself and how he could 've improved more. Okonkwo brought obstacles and barriers that people face now in America society wants us to follow these trends be people who were really not meant to be different from society expected him to
Okonkwo is on two ends of a stick. Sometimes he can be shown to be a caring, sympathetic character, but others he is shown as a ruthless person that is very unsympathetic person. Okonkwo is a man of action that would rather solve things with his fists rather than talking it out. He is a great wrestler hailing from the Umuofia clan that has thrown Amalinze the Cat. Okonkwo is also a very good farmer, where he has been able to grow two barns worth of yams. He is someone that doesn’t know how to control themselves when they get angry as he will then resort to violence. Okonkwo’s family relationships make him a sympathetic character because of his caregiving nature and hospitality and he is shown to be an unsympathetic character because of his
Their beliefs are completely opposite each other because of Okonkwo's need to fulfill his own pressures and ideal image, which he burdens himself with. Certain characteristics he holds which his father does not is seriousness, determination, and brutality. Okonkwo cannot move on from his past, instead he forces his future to be effected by his past, which results in his emotional separation from others around him. Oknonkwo describes his father as "lazy, improvident and quite incapable of thinking about tomorrow.
...their toll. Okonkwo ignores his emotions various times throughout the novel just so that others would not see him as weak or lesser than what Okonkwo wants to be seen as, powerful, perseverant, elite, and ultimately successful. Furthermore, Okonkwo fails to listen to the reason behind the decisions made by his community and in turn reacts irrationally and irresponsibly to the situation. Overall, Okonkwo’s fear of failing suppresses his potential to enjoy life, rather than living life just to make others think highly of him. Okonkwo’s inability to subdue his lifelong fear of failure limits him to react irrationally to situations without processing what is happening with reason, and ultimately the mistakes Okonkwo makes throughout his life add up and lead to his conclusive demise, suicide.
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.
For instance, because Okonkwo despises his father’s characteristics, he does everything he can to avoid them. Therefore, Okonkwo becomes a pillar of strength and stability in
Okonkwo’s fear of becoming like his lackadaisical father is an internal conflict between Okonkwo and his father. “Okonkwo’s fear was greater than these. It was not external but lay deep within himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father.” (Achebe 13). Okonkwo tries to live his life, ideally from his father.
Okonkwo is an interesting character that experiences many changes throughout the novel. He is a self made member of the Umuofia community unlike his father. His father’s cowardliness and laziness never provided for him or the rest of his family. Growing up, he developed a fear of becoming like his father and that is why it became his influence and purpose in life is to live successfully. This is one of the reasons he reaches troubling times along with his Chi. The concept of Chi plays a big role in his destiny and it was can be interpreted two ways after reading the book. It is possible that Chi may have caused his difficulties, but I believe that he caused them himself because of his strong-willed nature.
Okonkwo was ashamed of him and did everything possible to never end up like his father. When the narrator stated, “With a father like Unoka, Okonkwo did not have the start in life which many young men had. But he threw himself into it like one possessed. And indeed he was possessed by the fear of his father’s contemptible life and shameful death” (pg. 18). The.
Before colonialism Okonkwo was seen as a strong and confident man who was known as a fierce warrior whose barns were bursting with yams. “ His whole life was dominated by fear, the fear or failure and of weakness.”(pg 9) He had a fear of failure and being seen as weak which was mostly dominated by watching his father as a young boy who himself was a living embodiment of Okonkwo’s fear. Ultimately though Okonkwo suffered a fate very similar to that of his father.
Okonkwo’s fear of unmanliness is kindled by his father, who was a lazy, unaccomplished man. Okonkwo strives to have a high status from a young age and eventually achieves it. He has a large family, many yams and is well known throughout the village for his valor. He raises his family by his mentality of manliness and is ...
A prominent fear of others seeing him as weak ultimately causes Okonkwo's demise, lining up with the Igbo concept of universal justice. Instead of staying home as he was warned, Okonkwo accompanies
It was the fear of himself, lest he should resemble his father” (13). The fear Okonkwo has of becoming like his father inspires him to flourish in determination, hard
Okonkwo sees his father’s gentleness as a feminine trait. He works hard to be as masculine as possible so that he will be the opposite of his father and overcome the shame his father brought to his family. Okonkwo deals with this struggle throughout the entire book, hiding the intense fear of weakness behind a masculine façade (Nnoromele 149). In order to appear masculine, he is often violent. In his desire to be judged by his own worth and not by the worth of his effeminate father, Okonkwo participates in the killing of a boy he sees as a son, even though his friends and other respected tribe members advise him against it. (Hoegberg 71). Even after the killing of Ikamefuna, Okonkwo hides his feelings of sadness because the emotions are feminine to him. He goes so far as to ask himself, “when did you become a shivering old woman” (Achebe 65), while he is inwardly grieving. The dramatic irony of the secret fears that Okonkwo has will open the reader’s eyes to how important gender identity is to him. This theme is also presented among Okonkwo’s children. He sees his oldest son, Nwoye, as feminine because he does not like to work as hard as his father (Stratton 29). When Nwoye eventually joins the Christian church, Okonkwo sees him as even more feminine. On the other hand, Okonkwo’s
Okonkwo embodies all the ideal and heroic traits of the Igbo culture. He is strong, authoritative, hardworking, and successful. The opening sentence states that “Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond” (3). Okonkwo is great and famous because of his “solid personal achievements” (3). Okonkwo first achieved fame and recognition when he became the village’s wrestling champion. At eighteen years of age, he had “brought honor to his village” by defeating the seven-year champion. By winning the wrestling match, Okonkwo demonstrates to his village his great strength and skill as a warrior. After that his fame spread “like a bush-fire in the harmattan” (3). Okonkwo governs his household with authority. He “ruled his household with a heavy hand” (13). His wives and children lived “in perpetual fear of his fiery temper” (13). Okonkwo is a hard task-master. He works on his farm “from cock-crow until the chickens went to roost” and compelled his family to do the same (13). He does not tolerate laziness in his sons. He punishes his son, Nwoye, with “constant nagging and beating” (14). Okonkwo is the sole and unquestionable authority figure in his household.
Okonkwo takes his life as he sees himself a lone warrior in a society of weaklings. This isolation is truly imposed by his decision of how to handle the conflicts which he encounters. His unitary channeling of emotions, cultural inflexibility, and tendency to seek physical confrontation are compiled into a single notion. The idealized vision of a warrior by which Okonkwo lives is the instrument that leads to the climax of Achebe's novel, Things Fall Apart: Okonkwo's demise.