Okonchewo And His Father In Okonkwo

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

Since Okonkwo stood out more than all the other men he was seen as Umuofia's most powerful man. Although Okonkwo is the most powerful man in Umuofia he also has weaknesses. One of those weaknesses is his father, he doesn’t wanna be a weak man and careless like his father. As the white missionaries moved in into their home land, the Igbo people who are unsure of how to react to these traditions either switched to their ways or stayed faithful to their faith. Many people became persuaded of the new religions authorities, however Okonkwo who is an warrior at heart refuses to accept the changes that were taking place in his community.

Okonkwo soon learns about this and confronts his son, Nwoye about his secret meetings, Okonkwo soon becomes enraged and disowns his son after hearing about his experience not before abusing him of course. This action causes an effect which ultimately leads to Okonkwo’s downfall. Okonkwo enraged by the spread of Christianity within his own village self-proclaims war on the “white man”. Okonkwo eventually was detained as a result of his actions towards the “white man”. After he was released from detainment Okonkwo killed a courier and began to truly understand he was a rebel without a cause as his fellow Tribesmen would not help him with his internal struggle. Okonkwo knowing, he would be caught and executed for his crimes, instead decided to ultimately end his own life by hanging himself. Okonkwo’s major downfall in the story was his inability to co-exist with the white man and began his own personal vendetta against the Christian missionaries. Throughout the story the main essential theme Achebe tried to relay to us would be the fact that even though individuals may be of different religions, skin color, and have different personalities there is a realization that

In the beginning, Okonkwo feared being like his father, he raised his family and built up his life by his self because he did not want to be like his father. “He had no patience with unsuccessful men. He had had no patience with his father.” (pg. 1 TFA) the book said. He wasn’t very fond of his dad; his dad did not own much and had a lot of debt with everyone. Okonkwo did not want to grow up like his father; “In his

In the book “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe, we see the effect the white missionaries had on an African tribe and the antihero Okonkwo. The main character Okonkwo is a tragic hero. Achebe depicts Okonkwo as a Shakespearean hero with a tragic flaw, that tragic flaw is the fact that he will do anything in his power not to be a weak man like his father Unoka. Okonkwo did what he did because he hated his father and would do anything in his power to be the exact opposite of his father.

For all of his desire to be strong, Okonkwo is caught up by the constant fear of being perceived as weak. He is afraid of failure and afraid of being considered weak. This fear drives him to do whatever he can to not become a failure like his father which ironically contributes to his death. While Okonkwo was a strong and important figure in his tribe, he had to keep his reputation that way by making some hard decisions. One of them was when he had to kill Ikemefuna, a young boy from the neighboring tribe. Okonkwo started accepting the decision to kill Ikemefuna because he started to call Okonkwo father. He had to keep his own valor intact and kill the boy to prevent himself from showing any weakness, but deep down, Okonkwo was really upset because of what he did which was ironic, “’When did you become a shivering old woman,' Okonkwo asked himself, 'you, who are known in all the nine villages for your valor in war? How can a man who has killed five men in battle fall to pieces because he has added a boy to their number? Okonkwo, you have become a woman indeed.'" (Achebe 65). He continued to roll downhill when the white man comes to try and convert Okonkwo’s tribe. Okonkwo responds by killing one of the messengers that were sent. This cause Okonkwo's own tribe to question his actions. “"Okonkwo stood looking at the dead man. He knew that Umuofia would not go to war. He knew because they had let the other messengers escape.

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

The breakdown of Okonkwo’s relationship with his son is evident throughout this novel. The reason for this tumultuous relationship is, Okonkwo is too engrossed in maintaining his status quo, and his relationship was governed by his own beliefs, principles and his own “right way to do right things”. He treated his family very strictly as he believed that showing affection revealed a sign of social weakness; thus the disheartening lack of respect and love was a mal nourishing factor with in the family.

Okonkwo, as well as many other characters, had a cultural collision when the white missionaries came to Mbanta in chapter 16. What the Ibo didn’t know was that the missionaries were slowly gaining control of the Ibo tribe in Mbanta. The missionaries were building churches, schools, and bringing over their own laws. This meant the missionaries were teaching the Ibo what they wanted the Ibo to know and believe. The missionaries also brought the death penalty with them in the process. They had done all of these things intentionally, without considering the Ibos customs. Okonkwo, unlike the others, had a very hard time adapting to the ways that the missionaries had brought over.

First, Okonkwo starts off as a poor child, as shown when the book states, “Okonkwo did not have the start in life which many young men usually had, he did not inherit a barn from his father. There was no barn to inherit” showing that Okonkwo and his family were penurious, compared to others in the Igbo tribe (Achebe 16). Eventually, through his hard work and effort, he became a noble leader, which emphasizes his role as a tragic hero. Throughout the story Okonkwo goes through many challenges, but “In the face of futility, however, he maintains his nobility of character”(Gaydosik).

When people read about okonkwo they see a mean, strong, cold hearted man that like to keep things the same. You would never see okonkwo trying new things and he would follow the rules if needed to. He didn’t want to be a nobody like his father. He want people to know who he was and that he was a good man. So that led to being hard headed and not changing his ways. He was saw one plan or on vision and it was most about him how he looked good and things were going to be. So he never thought of a change he always grew up seeing it one way how the culture was. He never thought of it in any other way but the one he taught. Like how he always thought that women had no say, or that people couldn’t have twins, if you killed someone you had to leave for a long time. Things like that was things that he is used to. when change came he didn’t know what to do or how to stop it from happening.

However, despite how contrasting the tribal culture may seem, delving deeper into the feelings and rationalizations of the people reveals that they are not far off from the thinkings of a supposedly civilized man. Okonkwo, the acclaimed character of the novel, exhibits his views in a very conspicuous way. His perspective on life and success is introduced in a dramatic style which placed much emphasis on his views, and continued with this emphasis throughout the book. Okonkwo and his good friend, Obierika, discussed about the femininity of Okonkwo’s eldest son, Nwoye. The thought of Nwoye resembling Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, emerged a resolution in Okonkwo.

Okonkwo’s dad was someone who was “incapable of living about tomorrow” (Achebe, 4). This means that his dad would often live like it was his last night. This became a problem for his family. Often, his family food supply was scarce. Also, his family became a laughing stock. They would often be humiliated because he wouldn’t make enough money. However, Okonkwo knew that “age was respected among his people, but achievement was revered (Achebe, 8). After, his dad died without no title and in a big amount of debt, Okonkwo achieved fame. He became a great farmer, married three wives, and took two titles while he was still young. From what his father was to what he became was a big difference. On the shield, the green butterfly represents his

Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, was lazy, improvident and immature. He was always spent the money he made by buying gourds of wine. He owned every one of his neighbors some amount of money and was always in debt. When Unoka was younger he was a great kid but as an adult he was seen as a failure. He was poor and his wife and children never ate enough, and his debt that kept stock piling up never helped. He didn’t act like a parent meaning that Okonkwo had to step up as the father figure for his mother and his siblings. This left Okonkwo to grow up feeling that comfort was a weakness, but it also showed him that he never wanted to be like his father and put his family in that situation. Because Okonkwos father was so lazy, Okonkwo did not grow up like the other village kids. But despite his fathers poor choices Okonkwo got a job with one of the villages wealthiest men and worked on his farm to earn his first seed yams.

The description given early in the novel clearly establishes his character as being a strong and wealthy man who is well respected among the rest of the tribe due to his superior fighting abilities and his influential personality. Having achieved such elite status within the Umuofia clan, Okonkwo appears to be old-fashioned as it is seen in his approach in raising his family and tribal people. However, Okonkwo’s character changes incrementally with the emergence of a boy, Ikemefuna, from a neighboring village, who was brought to him because of his brutal attack against his wife Ojiugo during the ‘week of peace’. Amongst the Umuofia clan, the ‘week of peace’ is a tribal ritual whose conditions are not to complete any evil sins in a certain week span. After having accepted Ikemefuna into the family, Okonkwo experiences a shift in his mental state. Shortly hereafter, he questions this change, which demonstrates his lack of willingness to change which is clearly demonstrated in the book in several different ways like in chapter Eight, Okonkwo proclaims to himself, “When did you become a shivering old woman, you, who are known in all nine villages for your valour in war” (Achebe 56). This represents that his character has become a weaker, less influential individual amongst the nine tribes where he is well known. Symbolically, this depicts a fragile reputation in Okonkwo’s status within the community to which he belongs.