Yams And Symbolism In Things Fall Apart By Chinua Achebe

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 also tries to show himself as an unsympathetic character to show that he is not a weak man, like his father, Unoka. (Being a weak man is a very degrading quality for the culture of Umofia.) An example of Okonkwo’s unsympathetic personality is Ikemefuna’s death. Although Okonkwo treasured the presence of the adopted buy, Ikemefuna, Okonkwo contributes the last and fatal blow to Ikemefuna, causing him to die in the Evil Forest. Okonkwo, regardless of his love for the boy, killed Ikemefuna ultimately to prove his manliness and strength to the tribe, a valued aspect of the culture. “Okonkwo’s machete descended twice and the man’s head lay beside his uniformed body.” (Achebe 146) Okonkwo is also very unsympathetic in regards to his father, Unoka. Unoka was a poor man who was always in debt; he had an interest in music and enjoyed talking.

Unoka is Okonkwo’s father, he is a very lazy man and has amassed many debts. Okonkwo is very ashamed of Unoka and seems to hate him very much. Achebe states

Okonkwo is initially introduced as a proud, hardworking, successful warrior. He is described as "clearly cut out for great things" (6). But he is the son of a ne'er-do-well father; though genial and inoffensive, Unoka must certainly have been considered a failure. He is lazy and does not provide for his family. Not only is this disgraceful, but life-threatening as well. He is dependent on other members of the clan and must have been considered unsuccessful. Okonkwo chafes under such disgrace and his success is a consequence of his desire to be everything his father is not; society's vision of an exemplar citizen. The fact that Okonkwo is able to rise above his poverty and disgraceful paternity illustrates the Igbo's acceptance of individual free will. But Okonkwo's fate and his disharmony with his chi, family and clan are shown to cause his ultimate disgrace and death.

“Okonkwo’s gun had exploded and a piece of iron had pierced the boy’s heart” (124).

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

It was for this man that Okonkwo worked to earn his first seed yams.” (18-19) The quote shows how polygyny plays a part in the igbo culture. The quote also explains how Okonkwo viewed Nwakibie as a role model for his success and wealth which earned Nwakibie a higher rank in society, rather than his own father, Unoka. Okonkwo did not inherit a farm from his father like many young men in Umuofia did. Father-son inheritance was the beginning of becoming a man in Umuofia, the son helps with the farm then inherits the farm along with starter seeds. Unoka was not able to provide a future for his son Okonkwo because he was broke, lazy & irresponsible as explained in the novel. “With a father like Unoka, Okonkwo did not have the start in life which many young men had. He

The people in the village laugh at Unoka. They do not respect him and will not lend him money because they know he is not reliable and that he will not pay them back, but somehow Unoka still finds a way to pile up his debt. Unoka can not make his own money and is not fit for the way of life that people live in Umuofia therefore, he is not treated well by the village. Unoka does not have power because he does not have many wives or money but, he still has many great qualities. Unoka is a loving man but, that is not important to the people of the village. They do not treat Unoka with the respect he deserves. Unoka dies and Okonkwo does not seem to care. “Any wonder then that his son Okonkwo [is] ashamed of him? Fortunately, among these people a man [is] judged according to his worth and not according to the worth of his

Okonkwo’s hunger for power is greater than any others in the Umuofia village. Okonkwo’s thirst for power is greater than just doing it for publicity and for the people. Okonkwo endless hard work to gain titles is personal for him. Okonkwo wanted to be nothing like his father Unoka since he was a child. Unoka resembled all the things Okonkwo was not such as weak, a liar, cheap, couldn’t take care of his own family, and considered a women to the rest of the clan members. Okonkwo rarely speaks about

Unoka is his dad and which okonkwo and the whole village thanks he is unsuccessful. That’s make Okonkwo treat unoka like he’s lesser than a person. “He had no patience with unsuccessful men. He had no patience with his father.” (p.1/pg.4) This shows that Okonkwo was ashamed of his dad

In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, there are several significant differences between Okonkwo and his father Unoka. Amid Okonkwo’s journey throughout life, Okonkwo does everything in his power to set himself apart from his father. One of the most important things to Okonkwo is that he works hard to earn what he has. He has a plentiful farm, three impeccable wives, and several children to his name. While Okonkwo built his success from the ground up, his father did the opposite. Unoka did not slave away to provide for his family in the manner that Okonkwo did. He instead was lazy, and never knew a day of hard work in his life. Okonkwo also did not like borrowing money from any tribe members. He considered it a weakness that a man must borrow

Okonkwo, from Things Fall apart, revolves his whole life around showing people he is strong, which leads to self-destruction. He starts to feel the need to be important when his father, Unoka, was a joke to the village and seen, as Achebe writes, “Unoka in his day was lazy and improvident and a debtor.” (Achebe, page 4) to show how the people viewed him. True, that he was unlike other men in the village and did not take much seriously; however he did enjoy the little things, “He loved this season of the year, when the rains had stopped and the sun rose every morning with dazzling beauty...And he loved the first kites that returned with the dry season.” (page 5). Unoka did not care what other people thought, and he was content with his life. Once, Unoka had gone to consult the Oracle to find out why he always had a

In an agrarian society such as the one found in Things Fall Apart, life centers around the planting and harvesting of food, as that will dictate the level of comfort the society can expect in the next year. To the present day, the Igbo people of Nigeria hold a yam festival every year at the end of the rainy season, “a

The society that Chinua Achebe described in his book, Things Fall Apart, is also based on agriculture. The major crop the Ibo tribe grew was the yam, which was said to be the symbol of virility. The coco-yam, which was a smaller size and had a lesser value than other yams, was regarded as female. The "yam also stood for manliness, and he who could feed his family on yams from one harvest to another is a very great man indeed" (33). To produce a great harvest, the Ibo farmer would have needed a lot of help. The women ran most of the workforce by farming, tending animals, and raising the children so that they could help out on the farms.

Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, was the opposite person that Okonkwo wants to be. He was poor, only had one wife, had no titles, and hated fighting. By being born into Unoka's home Okonkwo had to start completely from scratch: “Okonkwo did not have the start in life which many young