In the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo is a tragic hero. When he wants to hold on to the clan's traditions he struggles because of his changing culture. Okonkwo wants to hold on to what the clan needs but he can not do this without messing something up for himself or his clan. His main obstacle is that he is afraid of what people think. Even though he is one of the clan's most famous wrestlers and has a great reputation, which because of that he has three wives but, he still does everything to keep up his warrior image and has protected the clan before but always struggles to do it again. Because he is paranoid about what people think of him it holds him back. Okonkwo is always looking out for Umuofia’s best interest, however, …show more content…
Okonkwo has three wives that he regularly beat. He does this whenever his wives “mess up” or do something untraditional. Okonkwo loves his wife and beats her because it is a normal thing to do in his society. “Many years ago when she was the village beauty Okonkwo had won her heart by throwing the Cat in the greatest contest within living memory. she did not marry him because he was too poor to pay her bride-price. But a few years later she ran away from her husband and came to live with Okonkwo.”(39-40). Okonkwo did not marry Ekwefi for status, but because he actually cared about her. He only beat because it’s expected. Beating his wife's does get him in trouble, once he noticed that his youngest wife, Ojiugo had left the hut without cooking dinner, so regularly he would beat her, and that is what he did. However, this was during the sacred week of peace, when the priest found out that he had beat her he was very mad and Okonkwo had to pay his duties. “His first two wives ran out in great alarm pleading with him that it was the sacred week. But Okonkwo was not the man to stop beating somebody half-way through, not even for fear of a goddess.”(29-30). Okonkwo knows that for beating his wife he does not look good but he thinks he would look worse if he did not finish the job of beating Ojiugo. He wanted to show the clan that he is …show more content…
When a white man comes to Umuofia and tells them about Christianity, the Clan thinks this man is threatening. When he requests to build a church, they let him build one in the Evil forest where they throw people when they are forbidden to be buried in the the Earth. When Okonkwo finds out that his son Nwoye is interested in Christianity he is ashamed of his son. Okonkwo thought “A sudden fury rose within him and he felt a strong desire to take up his machete, go to the church and wipe out the entire vile and miscreant gang… Suppose when he died all his male children decided to follow Nwoye’s steps and abandon their ancestors?”(152-153). Okonkwo is worried that his family will follow the christian faith which the clan thinks is threatening to their society. Okonkwo and the other leaders decide to try to destroy the church and they ended up burning it down. When the district commissioner who is an important figure to the white people there in Nigeria hears that the church is burned, he throws all the people involved in burning the church prison and when Okonkwo finally realizes that the Clan is against him too, he knows he messed up and punishes himself. Obierika said to the district commissioner “That man was one of the greatest men in Umuofia. You drove him to kill himself; and now he will be buried like a dog”.(208) Okonkwo kills himself because he
Okonkwo and Walter may or may not have achieved it, but while their eyes are fixated on their end goals for success and what they are gaining, they overlook their losses. Because of Okonkwo’s fear of being regarded weak, he often acts overly aggressive to demonstrate his masculinity. Examples of his acting aggressive and cruel fills the entire novel. The first incident is his beating of his wife Ojiugo during the week of peace. No violence is permitted during this week, but Okonkwo breaks the laws only to establish his dominance in the house. Afterall, he cannot be “like the man in the song who had ten and one wives and not enough soup for his foo-foo” (Achebe 57). This incident is an indication of Okonkwo’s disregard for tribal laws because of how less they weigh than his masculinity does in his heart. After already losing respect for the Igbo cultures and customs, Okonkwo continues on losing a dear son. Ikemefuna is captured from
Even during a time of peace and love, Okonkwo cannot hold himself back from dealing out a harsh punishment to his wife. He does not care about traditions or his religion as much as he cares about being strong or making a point. This plays into the theme of Man vs. Society by showing how Okonkwo goes against the expectations of the tribe and the theme of Self-Made Man by showing how he treats the world around him to better himself. Okonkwo’s first thoughts are not that he should just be calm because of the time; they are ones of violence because that is how he has reacted to every situation. He actually forgets all about the holiday that was occurring then because of his anger. It should be noted that even when his other wives confront him to remind him about the sacred peace, he continues to beat his wife because he is not one to quit once he starts making an example out of
This is an example of the difference in personal beliefs among family. Some may say that the book is about the differences in beliefs between the Africans and the colonizers, but it is more than that. It is clear that it was Okonkwo's personal beliefs and not necessarily the views of the people of Umuofia which guided him in what he did. One of these is his reliance in the strength of anger. Although he felt strongly in the beliefs and customs of the Ibo people, there are several occasions in which Okonkwo made a decision to disobey the customs in order to live out his own personal beliefs. For example, in chapter four, Okonkwo is yelled at by Ezeani, the priest of the earth goddess, for beating his wife during the sacred week of peace. Okonkwo did not feel remorse for his actions and probably thought of it as a sign of strength and manhood. Okonkwo was always worried about being seen as weak. One good
In spite of pleas from his other wives, reminding him that it is forbidden to beat your wife during the Week of Peace. Okonkwo will face consequences, not for beating another human being, but only because of his timing. He beats his second wife when she refers to him as one of those "guns that never shot". When a severe case of wife beating comes before the egwugwu, he finds in favor of the wife, but at the end of the trial a man wonders, "why such a trifle should come before the egwugwu"(pg.83). The husband considers his wife property. He either wants his wife back or his bride price.
Even though it is literally stated that Okonkwo is not one to show his emotions nor talk very much, he has deeper thoughts and feelings. There were numerous occasions when his children were put in danger and he was too worried for them. I also strongly believe he would defend his wives if ever the need arose. It is also written, however, that he almost always loses his temper on his family, and beats them occasionally. It is also because of this temper that he beat one of his wives on the Week Of Peace, almost shot another, and practically strangled his eldest son. But do not entirely blame him. His temper is his temper, and even though he learns how to control it, it is still always there, a part of him. As of the beating, he is not the only one that practices it. It is in their culture for the husband to beat his family when he feels it is necessary. His people believe it is a form of
“Unoka, the grown-up, was a failure” (Achebe 4). As Okonkwo grows up, he realized his biggest fear and fatal flaw is the fact that he desperately did not want to end up like his father, disrespected and very emotional. Therefore, Okonkwo fears weakness and open shows of emotions, so he contains himself and only shows anger, as he associates it with manliness. He is so scared of becoming his father and changing his ways that he resorts to beating people to show his dominance. “And when she returned he beat her very heavily” (Achebe 19). In this quote, Okonkwo beats his youngest wife, Ojiugo, for not returning soon enough to cook the afternoon meal. Since he decided to act without thought, he beat his wife in the Week of Peace, where no one is to be harmed. This causes a great unrest between Okonkwo and his chi, or his inner spirit, and gradually leads to his downfall of luck and
First, Okonkwo is a controlling gentlemen. He wants to be nothing like his father, him and his father are very different. During the week of peace Okonkwo beats his wife. He beats his wife up because she was braiding her hair instead of
Achebe utilizes Okonkwo as morally ambiguous to illustrate an internal battle between good and evil through his brutal actions. Okonkwo beats on his second wife, Ekwefi, when she fails to tell him about leaving their hut; he even threatens to kill her with his gun. The reader can deduce Okonkwo feels justified in his actions because he always thought of the male race as superior and as a disciplinary force. The author chooses to make Okonkwo beat his wife because while Okonkwo was not motivated to abuse his wife by anger, he was motivated to show him as being the head of the household; the man running the show. This connects back to the theme because it was good Okonkwo was taking on the role of being the head, acceptable by his community and time period, yet his methods would be looked down upon by modern day
Okonkwo thinks he is the owner of his household and he shows no mercy to anyone who angers him. “He ruled his household with a heavy hand. His wives…lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper, and so did his little children. Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and weakness.” (Achebe, Chapter 2, p.8). Okonkwo beats his children and wives because of his temper which is influenced by the Igbo society; he puts on a hard exterior because he is afraid of being weak and unsuccessful. At one point, he attempts to kill his second wife with a gun because he thinks she is the cause of a tree’s death. In order to prove his power and strength, without thinking of the consequences, Okonkwo beats his youngest wife during the week of peace - a week when the village celebrates peace and who ever disrupts the peace will be punished by Ala, the earth goddess (Lycos, online). “His first two wives ran out in great alarm pleading with him that it was the sacred week. But Okonkwo was not the man to stop beating somebody half-way through, not even for the fear of a goddess.” (Achebe, Chapter 4, p.21). Okonkwo lives in a male dominant society where men are pressured to be strong and successful; because of these influences, Okonkwo develops an inner
Okonkwo is a man who has to have things his own way. In the novel, there is a scene where his second wife, Ojiugo, did not make him his afternoon meal. Okonkwo, in an act of anger, started to beat his wife heaviley. His other two wives begged for him to stop beating Ojiugo, as it was the Week of Peace, a sacred Igbo holiday. However, “...Okonkwo was not the man to stop beating somebody half-way through, not even for fear of a goddess” (Achebe 30). Despite believing that he may be punished by a god, Okonkwo did not stop beating his wife. Unoka was a more compassionate man than Okonkwo, he was also stubborn. Unoka was lazy and fiscally irresponsible. He spent what little money he had on alcohol and didn’t
Okonkwo's violent behavior towards his wives was allowed in his clan, it was acceptable to physically punish his wives. In chapter 4, while Okonkwo "who had been walking about aimlessly in his compound
Okonkwo was known for his valor in war and his victory against Amalinze the Cat, Okonkwo believed that masculinity can only be shown through his violent action, in order to express his power, he often hit his wives and children, even during the Week of Peace. Nothing seemed to be able to stop him from being violent, because nice or caring personality is considered as weak or feminine. First case was when Ojiugo left without feeding her kid, and such action to Okonkwo was Ojiugo not doing her duty as stated “‘Did she ask you to feed then before she went?’ ‘Yes,’ lied Nwoye’s mother, trying to minimize Ojiugo’s thoughtlessness. Okonkwo knew she was not speaking the truth. He walked back to his obi to await Ojiugo’s return. And when she returned he beat her very heavily. In his anger he had forgotten that it was the Week of Peace” (Achebe 29). The word “beat heavily” implies that Okonkwo did not just beat Ojiugo, instead, it is in the form of domestic violence, the
In the novel 'Things Fall Apart' by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo's violent tendencies lead to his alienation from his family and his community. This is shown when he beats his wife during peace week, when he kills his son, Ikemefuna, when his gun goes off and kills Ezeudu's son, and when he shoots at his second wife, Ekwefi. First off, when Okonkwo has beaten his third wife for not cooking and taking care of the children and he stands before the priest of the Earth goddess, Ezeani, and Ezeani says, "'The evil you have done can ruin the whole clan. The earth goddess whom you have insulted may refuse to give us our increase, and we shall all perish,'" (30). This says that the priest is mad at Okonkwo because his violent course of action has put people
Okonkwo “beats her [his wife] very heavily” (29). This action of Okonkwo's
Okonkwo is known as a man with anger issues in the book and beats on his wife and kids and doesn’t get punished for by the clan for it . “ He pressed the trigger and there was a loud report accompanied by the wail of his wives and children . “ He shot at his wife out of anger and missed and wasn’t punished for it . “ There are many good prosperous people here , but i shall be happy if you marry in Umofia when