Violence In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

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In the novel, Things fall Apart, Achebe portrays a scene of violence which conveys the complex relationship of Okonkwo with his children in order to depict that one's actions can restrict how strong a relationship can be. Okonkwo pushes Nwoye to his limits out of fear that he will turn out to resemble his grandfather, something that Okonkwo can not accept, inadvertently hurting their relationship. Okonkwo compares his son to himself as an adolescent because at Nwoye's age, he was, “already fending for [himself]”. Okonkwo showed signs of maturity, strength and masculinity early on in his life unlike Nwoye but the Irony in the statement is that Okonkwo was forced to as his father never provided for him. Unoka was indolent and left Okonkwo without Their relationship is hindered as Nwoye can not be close with someone who thinks so little of him. Okonkwo also told Obierika that, ‘A chick that will grow into a cock,” can be noticed the day it is born. The metaphor implies that greatness can be spotted and a young age and since Okonkwo hasn't seen that reflected in Nwoye yet, he feels that he will amount to nothing. Okonkwo showed promise and an extremely young age as he was forced to provide for himself and he grew up to own many titles and fame as a wrestler and well as recognition for being strong. He is unsure as to why Nwoye doesn't show the same potential as he did, which isn't a fair comparison as both Nwoye and Okonkwo's life differed greatly. Okonkwo had Unoka as a father who wasn't a good role model while Nwoye has Okonkwo, someone who has desirable traits in the Ibo culture. Okonkwo fears he is resembling Unoka too much so he continues to push Nwoye to be his greatest version of himself and become more manly, something that Nwoye takes as him being a letdown. Okonkwo has also expressed that he feels, “A bowl of pounded yam,” could defeat Nwoye in a wrestling match. The metaphor signifies that Nwoye is feeble and can't After the death of Ikemefuna, Okonkwo, “did not taste any food,” for the days following the event. The situational irony of Okonkwo being affected by the death of one boy when he as slaughtered 5 men implied that Ikemefuna was more than just a sacrifice from another village. Okonkwo has explained him and time again that he is a man of great strength, both emotionally as well as physically. He has compared himself to his fragile father, Unoka, who couldn't view the sight of blood and wasn't a man of action so by contrast, Okonkwo was a man of war. Yet, despite his toughness, the death of Ikemefuna took a major toll on him as he was very fond of the boy who he had a better relationship with than his own son. He realizes that his was his very own actions which caused him to lose someone so close to him which hurt him even more. To cope, he, “drank palm-wine,” from the time he woke up to the time he went to sleep. The connotative diction of palm-wine implied that he was trying to use alcohol to suppress his emotions, since he felt too guilty when he was sober. Okonkwo felt that drinking would be the only way to keep his emotions of sadness from displaying themselves. His pain was deep inside him since he couldn't convey his emotions without the village assuming he was weak, the thing that drove him to deliver the blow

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