Okonkwo And Ikemefuna

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

Okonkwo was a man of action and sometimes that was a bad thing So he had a Friend named Obierika who was really wise and quite possibly the wisest in the tribe. When okonkwo is really quick to actions Obierika tries to slow him down and keep him from making irrational decisions with wise judgement. As time passes Okonkwo 's clan Umuofia had a problem with a neighboring clan which killed the wife of one of their members, So to keep the peace they made a trade of one boy and girl the Boy name was Ikemefuna and he was given to Okonkwo. Okonkwo started to love the boy like a son and even more than

Okonkwo becomes furious, kills a messenger, and then commits suicide in order to avoid being captured by the white men. Okonkwo cannot accept the evangelists, as they have made him lose his power and control over the community and his son. The change in Okonkwo’s life is negative as it makes Okonkwo desperately look for solutions, although there are none. His internal struggle with change leads him to kill another human and himself out of inability to do

He wanted to show that he was not like his father in any way. His father was a poor, lazy, man whom he didn't respect at all. Okonkwo gained respect through being a clansman. The clansmen were the law making body of the village, which everyone had obeyed. They enforced rules and laid down punishment.

Okonkwo made a lot of mistakes that led to new weaknesses in his lifetime. A lot of those were things that he couldn’t exactly control. Such

Okonkwo abides by the rules of masculinity long after it suits his life. Okonkwo thought women we inferior to men. During the Week of Peace, Ojiugo lied to her husband; in the novel it states, “And when she returned he beat her very heavily” (Achebe 29). Okonkwo’s anger took over him. His vision of himself was so great that he thought he could beat his own wife, even during the Week of Peace. Okonkwo’s favorite child would be Ezinma, but she cannot be as great as he would want her to be because she is a female. Okonkwo openly said, “She should have been a boy” (Achebe 64). Okonkwo thinks that his daughter is great, but because she is not a boy he can not admire her. He thinks she would have been better a boy because, in his mind, he thinks men are greater beings than women. Okonkwo cannot wait for his son Nwoye to grow up and be as great of a man as he was. The novel states, “He wanted Nwoye to grow into a tough young man capable of ruling his father’s household when he was dead and gone to join the ancestor” (Achebe 53). Even though Okonkwo likes Ezinma, he thinks Nwoye will keep his legacy going after he is dead. Ironically, Nwoye leaves his father’s side and joins the missionaries, while Ezinma stood by Okonkwo’s side. The reasoning for Okonkwo’s exile was due to Okonkwo shooting a young boy

Okonkwo took his struggles to the extreme. A boy called Ikemefuna came to stay with Okonkwo and his family. Okonkwo and his family grew close to Ikemefuna and so did he. Nwoye considered Okonkwo his father figure because Nwoye did not have a father. Nwoye became best friends with Okonkwo’s son Nwoye. One day a group of Village elders from all nine villages came to okonkwo’s house and let him know that Ikemefuna was to be killed. The next day they all went out together along with Ikemefuna and as they were walking, one of the men raised his machete and struck him down. “My father, they have killed me!” As he ran towards him. Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak”(Achebe 61) Okonkwo throughout the whole book doesn’t act the way he wants to scared he might be though weak and not manly. Okonkwo blocks off his emotions quite a lot. Okonkwo feels disappointed with his son but he is very proud of his daughter, yet he doesn’t want to admit it to her so he takes it out on her mother. He had wished that his daughter were to be a boy so he can be proud of her and praise her but he does not want to acknowledge a female.

Okonkwo was very zealous in achieving his goals and becoming stronger. He was always trying to be successful so he would not end up like his father Unoka, who was a failure at what he did and became known as Agbala. When the White men (Western Ideas) came in he had rebuked them even when some of his friends including his son had converted to their ways. Okonkwo had felt like a failure

Okonkwo wants his return to be special and, “was determined that [it] should be marketed by his people” (171). Nobody notices him and has no care in the world for him. This does not phase him and Okonkwo stays the way he usually is, not super angry but a little disappointed. He is one disappointed that nobody acknowledges him and two, he is still carrying around the disappointment from his son. His son, Nwoye, acts like Okonkwo’s father Unoka which is Okonkwo's greatest fear.

(pg.3 & 4) He is very successful as believed a man should be which explains him being a wealthy farmer, a husband to 3 wives and a father. Lucky for Okonkwo people in the village aren’t judged according to who their father is. “Fortunately, among these people a man was judged according to his worth and not according to the worth of his father” (All Things Fall apart pg.8) Okonkwo strongly dislikes his father, Unokas, Unoka is described as a lazy, improvident, failure.

Okonkwo was never nice to his family, in fact he was very brutal with them. He was always afraid to become like his father, in any aspect, because he always saw his father as weak and a failure. If he showed any of that to his family he thought he would become like his father. “Even as a little boy he had resented his father’s failure and weakness, and even now he still remembered how he had suffered when a playmate had told

Okonkwo has become determined to climb his way back up the social ranks after have been knocked to the bottom. “He was determined that his return should be marked by his people. He would return with a flourish, and regain the seven wasted years. Although this determination took his mind off of things, he still remembered the tragedy of Nwoye. “At first it appeared as if it might prove too great for his spirit. But it was a resilient spirit, and in the end Okonkwo overcame his sorrow. He had five other sons and he would bring them up in the way of the clan (172).” Okonkwo goes as far as to say “Now he is no longer my son or you brother (172).”

Okonkwo victimizes his family due to his sexism. Okonkwo’s actions and thoughts signifies his idea that men and women are not equal. Throughout the plot he berates his daughter, Ezinma, concerning her gender. Since she is not the son he wishes for he continually abuses her into acting more feminine. When Okonkwo summons Ezinma to his hut and as she sits down “‘Sit like a woman!’ Okonkwo [shouts] at her,” (Achebe 44). Okonkwo forces Ezinma to cook and care for him and usually shows no affection towards her. Okonkwo’s victimization causes Ezinma to feel unwanted and unable to make Okonkwo happy. Yelling to Ezinma and trying to teach her what he wants from her conflicts what she hears her father tell Nwoye. Okonkwo tells Nwoye to become stronger and focus on

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

Throughout the clan Okonkwo was respected for his strength, his success, and his skills. Okonkwo had killed five enemies in clan wars and thrown the cat in a wrestling match showing his strength to the clan. His success was defined by Okonkwo having three wives and a plentiful amount of yams. After the clan settles a dispute with another clan, Okonkwo is given the important job of caring for the child that was part of the exchange, “The elders of the clan had decided that Ikemefuna should be in Okonkwo’s care for a while.” (Page 27) This displays the trust and respect the elders feel toward Okonkwo. Furthermore, Achebe makes it clear that Okonkwo carried enough titles and created an identity that gave him the chance to take on this immense honor of caring for Ikemefuna. Okonkwo had also gained enough of a presence to be like one of the elders for the clan, “The elders and grandees of the village sat on their own stools brought there by their young sons or slaves. Okonkwo was among them.” (Page 46) Okonkwo is like the elders, because he is able to sit with them during clan events. This illustrates Okonkwo’s identity throughout the clan, being viewed by people of lower rank in the clan, while beside the most respected of the clan. In addition Okonkwo viewed himself as one of the high members of the clan, by challenging himself to be unlike his father and gain titles to contradict his father.