Direct Characterization
Unoka
Idleness
“Unoka, the grown up was a failure. He was poor and his wife and children had barely enough to eat. People laughed at him because he was a loafer”(Achebe 5).
In this passage, Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, is a lazy man with little motivation and will always try to find shortcuts to avoid work. In the quote above it bluntly states that Unoka is a failure. So much that he would rather his family go hungry than give up his idleness and work harder to produce more from his land. In the quote, it also refers to him as a loafer. The definition of a loafer is someone who is lazy or an idler. Achebe adds this to further signify Unoka’s idleness. In the beginning of the quote Achebe specifies that Unoka is grown up,
Okonkwo also tries to show himself as an unsympathetic character to show that he is not a weak man, like his father, Unoka. (Being a weak man is a very degrading quality for the culture of Umofia.) An example of Okonkwo’s unsympathetic personality is Ikemefuna’s death. Although Okonkwo treasured the presence of the adopted buy, Ikemefuna, Okonkwo contributes the last and fatal blow to Ikemefuna, causing him to die in the Evil Forest. Okonkwo, regardless of his love for the boy, killed Ikemefuna ultimately to prove his manliness and strength to the tribe, a valued aspect of the culture. “Okonkwo’s machete descended twice and the man’s head lay beside his uniformed body.” (Achebe 146) Okonkwo is also very unsympathetic in regards to his father, Unoka. Unoka was a poor man who was always in debt; he had an interest in music and enjoyed talking.
Unoka is Okonkwo’s father, he is a very lazy man and has amassed many debts. Okonkwo is very ashamed of Unoka and seems to hate him very much. Achebe states
In the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe the main character Okonkwo and his father, Unoka are very different, but also similar in some aspects of their lives. They’re similar because they are both fathers of children. They’re also different because Okonkwo is a hard worker but most importantly a clan leader of Umuofia, and his father was a debtor who was lazy and a man of no title of Umuofia.
A significant character shown in this passage is Obierika. Though a minor character, Okonkwo’s close friend demonstrates importance because of his many doubts and questions of some of the tribe’s traditional system, this shows a possibility of Obierika being a spokesperson for Achebe. He is a foil to Okonkwo, because Okonkwo has the desire for the most part to embrace the traditions and view of masculinity, while Obierika "was a man who thought about things" and sometimes questioned the ways of the clan. Another opposite decision he makes compared to Okonkwo is in the killing of Ikemefuna, in which he refuses to accompany them. He is more understanding towards women, thoughtful, and has no love for unnecessary violence. "Why should a man suffer so grievously for an offense he had committed inadvertently? But although he thought for a long time he found no answer." He worries because Okonkwo is a close friend of his, and he has a fit skepticism of the traditional ways and is more adaptable to change then Okonkwo, thus, they almost balance each other out, but Okonkwo repeatedly shows resistance towards Obierika’s reasoning. When questioning Okonkwo’s exile he is reminded of a tragedy of his own. "He remembered his wife’s children, whom he had thrown
In the passage above, Achebe gives the reader some insight into Okonkwo’s father, Unoka. Unoka arrives at the priestess of Agbala’s cave is to ask why none of his crops will grow. The priestess states that “You [Unoka] have offended neither the gods or your fathers”(Achebe 17) and that a man’s “harvest will be good or bad according to the strength of his arm” (17). If the priestess is correct, then Unoka’s problems with his farms are not spiritual, but physical. The priestess then continues to explain to Unoka that “You, Unoka, are known in all the clan for the weakness of your machete and your hoe”(17) and that Unoka sows “yams on exhausted farms that take no labour to clear”(17). Unoka is not a highly valued member of the village and is
Unoka, for that was his father's name, had died ten years ago. In his day he was lazy and improvident, and was quite incapable of thinking about tomorrow. (Achebe,4).
As someone who is passionate about issues of social justice; who enjoys engaging in a healthy debate; and whose life experiences have fostered an appreciation for legal protection, I am drawn to the academic study of law. Since graduating from my first degree, I have held a variety of jobs including some within the food service industry. It is in fact through my experience working in a field unrelated to law that has reinforced my interest in the study and practice of law. While employed as a waitress, I witnessed countless cases of employers unlawfully deducting workers' wages; ignoring workplace harassment; and refusing to acknowledge an employee's right to take breaks. Having personally submitted an employment-standards claim to the Ministry of Labour, I know how much time is involved in filing a claim against an employer.
Unoka’s bad reputation haunts Okonkwo throughout the novel. Unoka could not provide and did not want to provide for his family and work to supply for them. The family would starve and debt with their fathers and husbands list of unpaid debts. Nwoye was Okonkwo's oldest son, usually the first born is the most loved and valuable. However, Okonkwo believed he was feeble and sluggish, like his grandfather.
Okonkwo life is “dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness” (Achebe 13). When Okonkwo was a boy, his playmates teased him calling, saying that his father was agbala. Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, was lazy. He did not work on his farm; he died in great debt. He did not acquire a single title. He did not have a barn to pass down to his son. Unoka is a type of man who is scorned in Umofia. He is seen as weak and effeminate. As Okonkwo grows older, he is determined not become a failure like his father. His father was weak; he will be strong. His father was lazy; he will be hard-working. Okonkwo earned his fame by defeating the reigning wrestling champion. Okonkwo diligently plants yam, building a successful farm. He builds himself an obi, has three wives and many children. His fame “rested on solid personal achievements” (Achebe 3). Okonkwo will not let one womanly trait sully his reputation. Therefore, he “hate[d] everything that his father Unoka had loved” (Achebe 13). One of these was gentleness. Okonkwo refuses to show any signs of emotion, except his temper. He
Achebe uses Okonkwo’s relationship with his father to show how one person can affect a person their whole life. Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, did not give Okonkwo the start in life that most of the young tribesman do, and all of the village looked down upon him. In one instance Unoka had gone to consult the Oracle of the Hills and the caves about his meager harvest during the year. As he began his story the Oracle interrupts him and declares that “You, Unoka, are known in all the clan for the weakness of your machete and your hoe. … Go home and work like a man”(Achebe 17-18). In this encounter Unoka loses some of the respect that the tribesman, and his own son had for him. (Unoka’s Death?) From the beginning Okonkwo knew he did not want to grow up like his father and worked hard to generate a prosperous future. He had to work extremely hard, would do
Throughout the book Chinua Achebe illustrates Okonkwo’s relationship with his father, Unoka, to be a negative, tenuous, and non-existent. At the beginning of the novel the reader can already start to tell the opposition of the two characters when Achebe introduces them. Unoka is portrayed to be, “tall but very thin and [have] a slight stoop. He [wears] a haggard and mournful look except when he was drinking or playing on his flute” (3). Unlike his drunken and lazy father, Okonkwo, “was tall and huge, and his bushy eyebrows and nose gave him a very severe look” (1). Okonkwo was fierce and strong while on the other hand is father was lazy, weak, and feminine. The reader can tell that Unoka and Okonkwo were extremely different which plays a
Okonkwo is initially introduced as a proud, hardworking, successful warrior. He is described as "clearly cut out for great things" (6). But he is the son of a ne'er-do-well father; though genial and inoffensive, Unoka must certainly have been considered a failure. He is lazy and does not provide for his family. Not only is this disgraceful, but life-threatening as well. He is dependent on other members of the clan and must have been considered unsuccessful. Okonkwo chafes under such disgrace and his success is a consequence of his desire to be everything his father is not; society's vision of an exemplar citizen. The fact that Okonkwo is able to rise above his poverty and disgraceful paternity illustrates the Igbo's acceptance of individual free will. But Okonkwo's fate and his disharmony with his chi, family and clan are shown to cause his ultimate disgrace and death.
Okonkwo, as seen in Chapter One on pages 3 to 8, was a man born into the unlucky fate of having a father like Unoka. Unoka was a lazy and incompetent man who died an
Okonkwo the son of the useless and unimportant father Unoka strives to become rich and successful in the Ibo, unlike his father who was simple, poor and always was in debt from all of the people around. Okonkwo tries to
Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, was the opposite person that Okonkwo wants to be. He was poor, only had one wife, had no titles, and hated fighting. By being born into Unoka's home Okonkwo had to start completely from scratch: “Okonkwo did not have the start in life which many young