Okonkwo : Okonkwo And His World

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 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

Following Okonkwo’s seven year exile, the village Okonkwo once knew has changed due to the influence of Christianity and the influence of the British missionaries and officers. Okonkwo’s initial reaction is to arm the clan against the Colonisers and drive the British people out of Igbo.

Okonkwo achieves respect and high social status through his own heroic efforts despite being left with nothing but the dishonorable reputation of his “lazy and improvident” father. Toiling in the fields, enduring droughts, exhibiting fearless on the battlefield, and fueled by a burning desire to succeed, Okonkwo becomes a hero in Umuofia. Okonkwo’s success stems from his hard-work and perseverance, which he achieves in spite of his father’s shortcomings. He “lay[s] the foundations of a prosperous future” by slowly and painfully working like “one possessed” in order to escape “his father’s contemptible life and shameful death.” Okonkwo, so “possessed” with escaping the lingering reputation of his father, does anything in his power to earn

His tragic downfall truly begins when his is sent away because of an accidental murder of a boy. Okonkwo and his family are exiled from the tribe for seven years and Okonkwo is stripped of the fruits of his hard work. While he is away the white missionaries move into the village. They preach against the culture and its violent ways, causing Okonkwo to become saturated with rage. Seven years later, Okonkwo is able to return. He plans to reestablish himself and his position with the help of his family. However, Umofia is not as it once was. The white men have moved in and dismantled the tribe with their laws and government. Okonkwo wishes to fight, but the clan does not agree with his suggestion. After realizing the fate of the village, Okonkwo chooses to take his life. He would rather die than watch everything he had worked for fall apart because of weak people. His tragic flaw, a fear of weakness, is so strong it destroyed him.

Okonkwo strives all of his life to become a stronger, more powerful, and a successful individual. He wants to do this because his father was a slack and lazy person who lived most of his life in debt and had no titles to his name. People often looked at his father as a women figure for the few achievements he redeemed. Okonkwo never wanted to be like his father and it eventually got to the point where he became fearful of becoming like him. Achebe uses the power of fear as a theme of to show how much it can devastate one’s

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.

     During a burial ceremony for one of the tribesmen, Okonkwo accidentally kills the dead man’s son. The prescribed punishment for this is exile for seven years. Okonkwo and his family then move to his mother’s old tribe to serve his exile.

In the Igbo tribe, Okonkwo was a man of significant power. Focused on being a strong man and not falling into his father’s past of misfortune, Okonkwo held the great role of a leader among the society. However, his determination took over, provoking him to become harsh and mean towards the members of the tribe. He was determined “to be a true, strong man, causing him to lose love, compassion, patience and wisdom” (Miller).

His father was not known for repaying loans and was hated by the whole clan because of that, he was also very lazy and had claimed to job or title. To okonkwo’s eyes his father was weak and and a person who is worth nothing. Unlike his father, Okonkwo was a person that wants to take control of most situations. Just like he rules his family with fear of being beaten, he rules other with fear. He hates to be seen as a feminine and weak even though he does have a little bit of it in him.

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).

Okonkwo the Hero Okonkwo was a man of wealth, high title, and was well respected. But he lost everything he had due to an unfortunate event. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is about Okonkwo living in Africa when the English missionaries came. In Umuofia, the village Okonkwo lived in, they had very strict punishments.

This novel narrates the life of a Nigerian man, Okonkwo. Okonkwo lives in a gathering of nine towns. The towns are led by a committee of senior citizens. Okonkwo is one of the regarded pioneers of his town. He is additionally a wrestling champion. Both his wrestling and his administration part are driven by his disgrace about his dad, who left a great deal of obligations unpaid when he passed away, and who Okonkwo saw as excessively lazy and woman like. The author made sure he elaborated on the disdain that Okonkwo had for his farther. Okonkwo made sure that he was the complete opposite of him. Later in the story, a man from a neighboring town murders one of the ladies from Okonkwo's town, a peace settlement requires the child of the man who

He beginning of the story starts with basic introduction of the main character, Okonkwo. Okonkwo is a highly respected warrior in Iguedo. The fame and respect was earned by Okonkwo when he was young (probably a teen), he wrestled and won against Amalinze, “the undefeated.” Okonkwo is also a son of Uonka, a cowardice man who feared blood and was heavily in debt. Okonkwo had and still has a belief of masculinity in men, and this became the key reason why he hated his father. The father was good at language and flute, but weak. The son was the opposite. An ogene is sung, and Ogbuefi announces that a woman from Umuofia (the same group of people) has been murdered in a market place of Mbaino. Okonkwo goes to blackmail Mbain for a boy and a virgin, and therefore brings Ikemefuna and a virgin.

Okonkwo is a respected leader of the Igbo tribe. He works hard and does not like to show emotion other than anger because his father, Unoka, was very lazy and not reputable. There is a dispute with another village where a woman is accidently killed, and Umuofia demands a virgin and a young man in place of a war. Okonkwo brings back Ikemefuna and takes him into his home under instructions from the village. The boy becomes like a son to him, but when it is time, Okonkwo kills him for fear of being seen as weak. Later, Okonkwo accidentally kills a young boy at a funeral, but he is exiled for seven years. While he is away in Mbanta, the Europeans arrive at Umuofia and begin to convert the Igbo people to Christianity. Just as Okonkwo returns to his village,