What Is Okonkwo's Sense Of Identity In Things Fall Apart

The decision that Okonkwo made when he was younger was that he decided he was not going to be a failure like his father. He got on this as soon as he could and he eventually did some great things, as stated in the book “His fame rested on solid personal achievements, as a young man of eighteen he had brought honor to his village by throwing Amalinze the Cat.” This is how Okonkwo first gets his “fame,” he beat the Cat in a wrestling match and everyone began to realize that this man isn’t at all like his father. The people of the clan began ot thing that maybe Okonkwo had a chance of being someone special. He also did some other great things which earned him titles, which were like

Okonkwo was well known through out the nine villages because of his achievements in the tribe. Okonkwo had a great fear of becoming like his father. This had a rather large impact on his life and how his personality. Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, was a lazy man whereas Okonkwo was a hard worker, Okonkwo ruled his house with a heavy hand and he was a man of war.

In the novel Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo is portrayed as a respected and determined individual whose fatal flaw eventually works against him. Throughout the novel the readers are shown that Okonkwo has many of these Characteristics because he is obsessed with the idea of becoming just like his father. This becomes his flaw in the novel that puts him into exile and makes it hard for him to adjust to the changes that were made with in his village.

A Hero’s Attributes For most, a hero is someone that one looks up to, someone one can trust, like John Keating or Superman. A hero possess certain traits, like courage, righteousness, and acting boldly. Without traits like these, there would be no hero qualities, no reason to justify why someone should be considered a hero. As everyday life goes on, books,information, and opinions change.

Okonkwo was enraged by what he had heard and beat his wife when she returned home. I feel like he only did so to prove that he would not accept irresponsibility and disrespect in his house. Of course, I do believe hurting your family in any way is unacceptable. I think he should have handled the situation another way. Their village had a “Week of Peace” which prohibited men from abusing their wives for the entire week.

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.

Okonkwo started out in the novel as High in standards, well known, and masculine, but the cultural collision of the British colonists and Ibo people affected Okonkwo to the point of being hatred to everything, angered to the colonists, and tries to show no weakness to the colonists even though his clan is putting a lot of pressure on him from all of this. The reasons for Okonkwo change in their sense of identity included from

He got in trouble by the people in his village because during peace week you are supposed to be me nice to everyone. As you can see Okonkwo is not a nice person so the people in his village said that as his punishment he is told to make a ritual sacrifice. A little later in the year he threatens his second wife with a gun because she admits to taking the leaves of his banana tree. At Ezeudu's funeral Okonkwo's accidentally shoots a child. Okonkwo is banned from his village for 7 years and can't come back until that seven years is

Another example of all his clan falling apart was that they would kill each other in the end saying that “they must root out his evil. And if our brother take the side of evil we must root them out too” (Achebe 204). The clan has turned on each other and now they are going to destroy and kill each other, ultimately, letting the white people win. Additionally, the community also demands the ideals that could only be earned by “developing the physical strength, manly courage, and disciplined will valued by his Igbo culture” (Bennett). This shows that in the community, those must earn honor through manly ideals, which towards the end of the book Okonkwo fails to do, thus resulting in the community abandoning him and disregarding all the hard work that Okonkwo had yearend for.

In the book “Things Fall Apart” written by Chinua Achebe, there are many characters that faced the challenge of having two different cultures. The character that stood out the most is Nwoye. He faced a very difficult challenge of not being accepted by his hometown’s culture. He wasn’t accepted by his father because he was very feminine like his mother. Nwoye’s father is Okonkwo, and he expects his children to be masculine and strong like him.

Okonkwo ‘s sense of identity was challenged with the introduction of the Western ideas into the Ibo culture. Okonkwo started in the novel as a strong warrior, and a successful leader as a person , But the cultural collision of the British colonists and Ibo people affected Okonkwo to the point of that he was a wonderful. He was strong for his children and several wives.(Page 3.) The reason for this is that Okonkwo changed in their sense of identity included that when he was a great and powerful leader he had some upset in his cultural ways just like the Western did also in life. In part one it had stated that Okonkwo never wanted to be like his father a drunk, and a person that would have to borrow money and never pay them back.

Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart, illustrates the hardships an Igbo village in Nigeria went through, when the white missionaries invaded the village to spread Christianity. Even though that is the main plot of the whole book, the focus of the book is also on the character traits of the main character, Okonkwo. Okonkwo's appearance is just as normal as the other men in the village. However, he has something special, that makes him stands out and respected by a lot of people. His bravery and wrestling skills have earned a lot of respect from people in his own village and neighboring villages as well.

This was definitely the moment where his life began to change. To add, while attending Ogbuefi Ezeudu’s funeral, Obonkwos’s gun went off and accidently killed the deceased warrior’s son, which was also another sign of change. After this incident, Okonkwo was forced to leave the town for 7 years. He moved his family to his mother’s town and while they were gone all of their things were destroyed. To him this was very embarrassing. All of his life, he only wanted to be everything that his father was not. There was a time in his life where he had respect, people feared him, and he was the representation of a very dominant figure in his family; but from the time he killed his son and Ezeudu’s son the townspeople begin to not only lose respect for him, but he was no longer someone that the people sought for protection. He was being disowned by his town and to him this was horrific because it made him look weak and he no longer had

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.

Okonkwo is a strong and confident man who has vowed to never be like his father Unoka. His father was lazy, unsuccessful and carried no titles. The relationship between Okonkwo and his father motivated Okonkwo to gain titles and become successful inside the clan. In this sense, Okonkwo has gained many titles, has three wives, and respected by the clan. Okonkwo chose to feel that identity in the clan was most important, and through this he had become a presence in the clan, noticed by the elders. However after the arrival of missionaries, who had come to convert the clans to Christianity, Okonkwo’s view is completely contradicted by the missionaries. Okonkwo had grown accustomed to members of the clan being ranked by certain tiers, while the