Things Fall Apart Nwoye Character Analysis

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In the novel “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe, Nwoye is Okonkwo’s eldest son who is a feminine in the eyes of his father while being a lackadaisical boy just like Unoka was during his lifetime. As a child, Nwoye was often criticized by his father for not being a manly person. Eventually, Ikemefuna comes to fill the void of a manly person and afterwards, Nwoye decided to emulate Ikemefuna as a way to show to his father that he is not a feminine but instead he is transitioning into a manly person. On the other hand after the murder of Ikemefuna, Nwoye decides to distance himself from his father and seems to lose the respect he once had towards his father. Without Ikemefuna’s influence, Nwoye decides to convert back to his gentle nature which basically leads to Okonkwo to view his son as a disappointment and feminine person. Later on in the novel, Nwoye decides to not forgive his father for his betrayal in killing Ikemefuna which ultimately leads to Nwoye to convert into Christianity as a way to show his father that he did a scandalous thing that would never be forgiven.
Nwoye was obviously the only character who had a strong positive response towards the cultural collision that happened during chapter sixteen of the novel Things Fall Apart. From the beginning, Nwoye seemed …show more content…

“On the following Sunday, Nwoye passed and repassed the little red-earth and thatch building without summoning enough courage to enter” (pg.150). Obierika saw Nwoye with the missionaries and asks Nwoye what he was doing with the missionaries, but Nwoye replied back to Obierika by saying “I am one of them” which basically shows that nwoye see’s the world at a different point of perspective. Actually, all the things that Okonkwo believed were right were wrong in the eyes of Nwoye after opening up to a different point of

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    Chinua Achebe wrote this novel from the perspective of Okonkwo, but this passage in particular is more from Nwoye’s point of view and is told through a third person omniscient narrator. It takes place in the middle of a larger topic involving the manliness of Nwoye and Ikemefuna, and is located in paragraphs three and four of chapter seven, in part one. Here, Nwoye and Ikemefuna are sitting in Okonkwo’s obi listening to “masculine stories of violence and bloodshed” (TFA, location 574). Nwoye is pretending to be interested in the stories to please his father, but he prefers the womanly stories his mother told.

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  • Change And Tradition In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

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    Nwoye grows tired of his father and is called by the Christian faith and converts. Nwoye’s internal struggle with himself between change and tradition ultimately led him to convert against his father’s wishes. Okonkwo is extremely resistant to change, so he does everything in his power to prevent his family from converting; “‘If you turn against me when I am dead I will visit you and break your neck’” (Achebe 105). Okonkwo uses fear to keep his other children from the Igbo culture.

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  • Theme Of Feminism In Things Fall Apart

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    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

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