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The character of okonkwo in things fall apart
Tragedy of okonkwo when things fall apart
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The Role of Masculinity in Things Fall Apart Masculinity typically refers to the common traits inherited by a male. Males are stereotyped to provide support for the family. Support can be executed in many ways such as through protection and financial and emotional bolstering. However, the term masculinity has various definitions and can be viewed through different lenses. In the novel, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the concept of masculinity is portrayed thorough the main character, Okonkwo. Okonkwo is Unoko’s son and he strives to live a life embracing manliness in a way that his father did not. His father expressed his manliness through self expression while Okonkwo displays his through being angry, violent, and patronizing. Okonkwo’s masculinity only lies in his patronizing and narrow minded behavior that often seeks to be aggressive through absolute power. …show more content…
Okonkwo is feared by his family members due to his aggressive nature. He is not very open and friendly with his wives and children which creates barriers in the family. His social life is wrecked. “Okonkwo ruled his household with a heavy hand. His wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper, and so did his children… But they dared not complain openly.” (Achebe 13) Men in the Ibo culture are given more importance and authority over the women. The women are known as the “weaker sex” because they were not given as many opportunities outside of their daily house life. Okonkwo 's children and wives have absolutely no power because they were scared by his aggressive behavior. He believes that in order to establish firm power and show his manliness, he must be violent and abusive. However, this is not the case because he is degrading his stature through such actions. Rather, Okonkwo should support his family in a more compassionate way so that there would be a stronger bond between
Okonkwo is one of the most powerful men in the Ibo tribe. In his tribe, he is both feared and honored. This is evident by this quote, "Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond... [He] brought honor to his tribe by throwing Amalinze the Cat..."(3) This suggests that in Okonkwo's society, power is attained by making a name for yourself in any way possible, even if that means fighting and wrestling to get your fame. Although honor is a good thing, when people have to fight to gain it, it becomes an object of less adoration. Okonkwo's "prosperity was visible in his household... his own hut stood behind the only gate in the red walls. Each of his three wives had her own hut... long stacks of yams stood out prosperously in [the barn]... [Okonkwo] offers prayers on the behalf of himself, his three wives, and eight children." (14) Okonkwo has also worked and tended to his crops in a very zealous fashion, and drives everyone around him to work as hard as he does. Because of this, he earns his place as one of Umuofia's most powerful men. In many cultures, a big family is a source of pride. Although Okonkwo is not always pleased by his children and wives, it also brings him a source of pride to have three wives and eight children. Large families mean that the head of the family is able to support all of them. Okonkwo's devotion to his crops and family gives to him the respect that any father and husband deserves, and in his culture, being able to fight and kill as well gives him even more influence and power.
by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo depicts his masculinity in many different ways, even if it hurts the people closest to him. He feels it is necessary to display his manliness so he does not end up like his father Unoka. “He had no patience with unsuccessful men. He had no patience with his father” (4). Okonkwo correlates virility with aggression and feels the only emotion he should show is anger, leaving him no way to cope with the death of his culture.
Okonkwo’s fear leads him to treat members of his family harshly, in particular his son, Nwoye. Okonkwo often wonders how he, a man of great strength and work ethic, could have had a son who was “degenerate and effeminate” (133). Okonkwo thought that, "No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children (and especially his women) he was not really a man" (45).
Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart is a powerful novel about the social changes that occurred when the white man first arrived on the African continent. The novel is based on a conception of humans as self-reflexive beings and a definition of culture as a set of control mechanisms. Things Fall Apart is the story of Okonkwo, an elder, in the Igbo tribe. He is a fairly successful man who earned the respect of the tribal elders. The story of Okonkwo’s fall from a respected member of the tribe to an outcast who dies in disgrace graphically dramatizes the struggle between the altruistic values of Christianity and the lust for power that motivated European colonialism in Africa and undermined the indigenous culture of a nation.
If viewed on the surface the story line of Things Fall Apart is a tragedy, but when viewed in a wider perspective it is a story of deeper conflict. The main issue is that the British have come to establish a mission and receive converts. Less evident is the conflict this intrusion inserts between the Ibo and British. The underlying issue is masculinity versus femininity. By this I mean to say that the Ibo are an agrarian people who are a patriarchal and see any sign of weakness as being less than desirable. The protagonist in the story, Okonkwo, is the champion of this thought. As what would happen to him seems to happen to the Ibo. When Okonkwo disagrees he is usually correct and the tribe would suffer the same fate and vice versa.
The Role of Women in Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart explores the struggle between old traditions within the Igbo community as well as Christianity and "the second coming" it brings forth. While on the surface, it appears the novel narrows its focus to a single character, Okonkno and his inner battles, one can read deeper into the text and find an array of assorted conflicts in the realm of human vs. human, human vs. nature, human vs. society, and society vs. society. For the purposes of this paper, I shall focus on the labyrinth of human vs. human and human vs. society in the framework of the role of women in Igbo society and how men assign and dictate these roles. I will also briefly explain the importance of women in terms of motherhood and wifedom. Throughout my research I've encountered numerous papers on the rights women do have in Igbo society, on the importance of women in this society.
The Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a straight to the point story, embedded with interesting elements that capture readers’ attention. In my view, when I read the story, I found many interesting things about the theme of the book. But The Masculinity Okonkwo was what captures my attention. The story opens up to a Traditional Igbo lifestyle, a theme which is highly stylized from its ritual to the actions performed for certain ceremonies. Most of the action Igbo tribe has been an attempt to show respect to the gods, for example, when ikemefuna became sick and his stomach swelled up their traditions says that he take them to the evil forest and kill him. The story also seems to focus on gender, family, respect and reputation, and religion. In fact, Gender which in Igbo tradition, sets standards and roles between Igbo women and men. Women in Igbo Culture are the weaker sex, but are endowed with qualities that make them worthy of worship, like the ability to bear children. Men in Igbo Culture are the stronger sex, which gives them the ability to provide for their family and has prowess on the battlefield. In Igbo culture, building a nice and respectable family is important and titles in their culture gives them respect and builds reputation in the ‘‘Umuofia’’ village playing a big role in Igbo tradition. Nothing plays a bigger role in Igbo tradition than religion, the ‘‘Umuofia’’ village worship the goddess of the earth are always careful to avoid committing sins of their goddess with a fear of vengeance that might wipe out an entire generation. In the story, the men of the Umuofia village seem to care a lot about masculinity, when Okonkwo is hosting a party he takes it very seriously and ...
In Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe utilizes Okonkwo’s desire to be perceived as masculine through the act of putting his own interests above those of the clan in order to portray how Igbo society is negatively affected by gender roles. Gender roles are the norms and behavior that society expects each gender (male and female) to adhere to. So, for example, in the novel, men are expected to provide for their families and women are expected to be submissive to their husbands. The idea of gender roles has a negative effect on Igbo society because it enslaves people to a gendered way of life that can, at times, limit people from expressing their true feelings out of fear of breaking societal expectations.
It is another to sympathies for a man who believes he is powerful and respected by many when in reality, he is feared by his own family and that is another reason that leads Okonkwo to his downfall. He started positive, motivated but down the line, Okonkwo treats his wives and children very harshly. When the author mentioned, “Okonkwo ruled his household with a heavy hand. His wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper, and so did his little children” (pg.13). This is not power but a weakness when Okonkwo uses power to rule his own house, detaching himself from the emotional connection with this family rather than being frightening to live with. The sign of “gentleness” as like his father means weakness to Okonkwo even with his own family. Especially his wives, when the narrator demonstrated the lack of emotion to his wife, “Okonkwo was provoked to justifiable anger by his young wife, went to plait her hair at her friend’s house and did not return early enough to cook the afternoon meal… 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…But Okonkwo was not the man to stop beating somebody half –way through, not even for fear of a goddess” (pg.29-30). Okonkwo does not even fear the goddess and the Week of Peace and ends up beating his wife to show that he owes
The Ibo were very gendered people. The men normally made all the rules and the women were taught to respect their husbands decisions. In particular, Okonkwo ruled his household with an iron fist. He often beat his wives for small reasons and felt little to no remorse for doing so. While it was not uncommon for the men of the Ibo tribe to beat their wives if they disobeyed orders, Okonkwo was a character that oftentimes took it too far.
]k Adegbite O. came to a similar conclusion about Okonkwo’s views on masculinity and femininity when he makes the remark in his essay that, “Okonkwo is of the opinion that traditional men have lost their place in society and cannot be termed ‘worthy’ anymore as Western culture has softened their resolve; men have been turned to weaklings by colonisation and the white man’s religion” (Tobalase, “Masculinity and Cultural Conflict in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart”).
Throughout history, there have been many instances of people struggling to identify and cope with change and tradition, and this is no different in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.
Okonkwo sees his father’s gentleness as a feminine trait. He works hard to be as masculine as possible so that he will be the opposite of his father and overcome the shame his father brought to his family. Okonkwo deals with this struggle throughout the entire book, hiding the intense fear of weakness behind a masculine façade (Nnoromele 149). In order to appear masculine, he is often violent. In his desire to be judged by his own worth and not by the worth of his effeminate father, Okonkwo participates in the killing of a boy he sees as a son, even though his friends and other respected tribe members advise him against it. (Hoegberg 71). Even after the killing of Ikamefuna, Okonkwo hides his feelings of sadness because the emotions are feminine to him. He goes so far as to ask himself, “when did you become a shivering old woman” (Achebe 65), while he is inwardly grieving. The dramatic irony of the secret fears that Okonkwo has will open the reader’s eyes to how important gender identity is to him. This theme is also presented among Okonkwo’s children. He sees his oldest son, Nwoye, as feminine because he does not like to work as hard as his father (Stratton 29). When Nwoye eventually joins the Christian church, Okonkwo sees him as even more feminine. On the other hand, Okonkwo’s
To start, Okonkwo is very dominate over females in the Igbo society, because of a male dominated society. Women are to obey the mens orders, without question, which shows the culture is very male dominated. An author of an academic article
Even if a man had a title for himself if he did not have control of his wife and children, he was not considered a true man, “No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule this women and his children, he was not really a man(53)”. Man of Igbo are held a high amount of power, which is why Okonkwo’s nine children and three wives were often terrified of his anger. Okonkwo struggles with his prominent attitude that men are more important than women because he fears to not be successful and resemble his father, Unoka, whom he refers to as a “woman”. Unoka, before his death was lazy, irresponsible, and weak, as he was known for owning money to others. Achebe uses Unoka, as an example that is a was not manly or did not earn himself a worthy title, that he is not looked at as a real man. Umofia was strict about the understanding that all men must be strong, even when Okonkwo wanted to care for others in a compassionate way he could not because they would mistake that for weakness. For example, when Okonkwo wanted to save Ikemefuna from death, Achebe states, he could not do that because he is too prideful and being strong for men in Umofia, is not just a characteristic but a lifestyle. Okonkwo has no problem letting go of his son Nwoye because he chose the catholic religion over what his father believed in. For a