The parent-child dynamic is something that varies widely among families. The foundations for these relationships may be rooted in a parent’s personal experience or preference—a parent may be more or less affectionate or disciplinary as a result of the way he or she was raised. Another source of influence for these dynamics may be found in cultural norms; for example, traditional Asian parents typically take a very practical and authoritative role in their children’s lives, showing little affection in comparison to the norm set by caucasian parents. Furthermore, a parent and a child might develop a friendship or an enmity as a child ages, based on their fundamental compatibility; a pair who share the same beliefs and interests will likely form …show more content…
While Sethe’s infanticide was in the name of love and protection, Okonkwo’s murder of his adopted son is sheerly for the sake of pride. As a man who values his perceived masculinity above all else, Okonkwo refuses to show affection to his children, especially in the presence of witnesses. This is not difficult for Okonkwo in regard to his son, whom he finds lazy and wholly unsatisfactory. However, he does have a daughter for whom he cares, but because she was a female, she spent most of her time with her mother and the other women in the tribe. Though this separation has kept the two somewhat distant, Okonkwo keeps a watchful eye over her; he even laments that he wishes she had been a boy, because her wit and strength far outshine her brother’s. Okonkwo’s later receipt of a boy from a neighboring village unexpectedly gifts him with the kind of son he had always wanted, and he begins to think of himself as the boy’s father. Despite his pride in him, Okonkwo continues to withhold any sign of approval or endearment for fear of tarnishing his manly reputation. This indignation is made undeniably clear when he slaughters the boy in front of his men—even against the advice of the oracle—in an effort to flaunt his
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
From birth Okonkwo had wanted his son, Nwoye, to be a great warrior like him. His son instead rebelled and wanted to be nothing like Okonkwo. Okonkwo would not change so that his son would idolize him, as he had wanted since his son's birth. He chose not to acknowledge his son's existence instead. This would weigh heavily on anyone's conscience, yet Okonkwo does not let his relationship with his son affect him in the least bit.
The protagonist, Okonkwo demonstrates his sympathetic character solely to himself, personally, and infrequently not in the eyes of others. During the plotting of Ilemefuna’s death, Okonkwo was hesitant to make the boy aware of his fate and also hesitant to take part in his death. “‘I cannot understand why you refused to come with us to kill that boy,’ he asked Obierika” Okonkwo was aware that the adopted boy from an opposing tribe thought of Okonkwo, not only as an authority figure and high-ranking tribal member/warrior, but also as a father—his father. Until the death of Ikemefuna, Okonkwo continued to show Ikemefuna kindness due to feeling that “his son’s development was due to Ikemefuna.” (Achebe 3...
Okonkwo is not all that he may seem; as there is more than what meets the eye. Okonkwo is the primary protagonist within the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Okonkwo is a cruel yet kind man who has everything yet has nothing, which in turn creates a sympathetic character. A character such as Okonkwo has many facets; or masks if you will. Then we have his many influences: the Ibo culture; his father Unoka and of course his own personality. 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.
Within the Obi tribe, Okonkwo is an important man, who has risen from nothing to a man of great wealth and social status. Okonkwo is obsessed with masculinity, and he has a very narrow view of “manliness”. Okonkwo's relationship with his dead father is the root of his violent and ambitious conduct. He wants to rise above his father's legacy of laziness, which he views as weak and therefore feminine. This drive and fierce pride made him a great man, but they are also the source of all of his faults.
Okonkwo rejects his children because of his insecurity of the clan’s opinion. He values strength and masculinity. Not only does Okonkwo not see these qualities in his son, Nwoye, but also recognizes how he is weak and feminine. Okonkwo is so ashamed of his own child that he “will not have a son who cannot hold up his head in the gathering of the clan. I would sooner strangle him with my own hands” (33). Okonkwo’s uncertainty of clan’s opinion causes him to make drastic statements, such as threatening to murder his own child, in order to prove himself worthy of the society. Okonkwo would rather not have a son than have one who would tarnish his reputation. As a result, he repudiates his own son. When Okonkwo is explaining to Obeirka about his disappointments with his children, he reveals his grief about Ezinma’s gender when he states his “children do not resemble me […] If Ezinma had been a boy I would have been happier. She has the right spirit” (66). Although Ezinma has all of the masculine characteristics Nwoye lacks, she is a girl. Okonkwo cannot accept his daughter because women are inferior to men in the Ibo culture. Thus, Ezinma’s masculine traits are worthless. The complications of Ezinma’s gender that e...
Okonkwo’s fear leads him to treat members of his family harshly, in particular his son, Nwoye. Okonkwo often wonders how he, a man of great strength and work ethic, could have had a son who was “degenerate and effeminate” (133). Okonkwo thought that, "No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children (and especially his women) he was not really a man" (45).
Unlike his father, Okonkwo is a hard worker with little debt and a driven personality. His internal fear leads to his decision to beat his wife during the week of peace and to take part in the mandatory action of killing his beloved son, Ikemefuna.
William Dean Howells's realistic fiction, The Rise of Silas Lapham, makes an unambiguous wade into the symbolic realm of literature in the first sentence of Chapter Four. The author designedly inserts an artfully metaphoric depiction of marriage after a scene in which the main characters, Mr. and Mrs. Lapham engage in an impassioned argument. Howells uses the unpleasant, yet not uncommon marital squabble as a sagacious segue into a revelation about his personal beliefs on the institution of marriage, as well as his fervor for realistic fiction. From the outset, the reader is pleasantly guided into a fairly straight-forward story of a man’s rise to riches through a passion for paint passed down by his father, but this chapter is notably different.
Parent child relationships, one of the strongest bonds a person could have. No matter which parent you side with, you still try to support and love each other the same. In the novel “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe the main parent child relationship lies between a father and son. Or at least this is how Achebe portrays it in the novel. Achebe accomplishes many tasks by using parent child relationships as a motif. He creates interest, helps readers easily grasp concepts, creates generalizations about parent child relationships, emphasizes a link between generations, and characterizes main characters such as Okonkwo. While using these things, Achebe creates a more interesting, complex, and realistic novel.
Throughout the novel, Oknonkwo does many things to prove his masculine quality. Many of these things are debatable as to whether they affirm Okonkwo's masculinity or if they bring out his true weakness and lead to his destruction. (Goldman 2)
Although the reader feels remorseful for Okonkwo’s tragic childhood life. It is another reason to sympathize with a man who believes he is powerful and respected by many when in reality, he is feared by his own family and that is another reason that leads Okonkwo to his downfall. He started positive, motivated but down the line, Okonkwo treats his wife and children very harshly. When the author mentioned, “Okonkwo ruled his household with a heavy hand. His wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper, and so did his little children” (pg.13).
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 ...
Okonkwo is “a man of action, a man of war” (7) and a member of high status in the Igbo village. He holds the noticeable 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.
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