Nwoye And Okonkwo's Relationship

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In the song “Runaway,” Ed Sheeran sings “Well dad just don’t expect him back this evening. It could take a bit of time to heal this.” Ed Sheeran’s artsy lyrics exemplify Nwoye and Okonkwo’s relationship. Chinua Achebe, author of the novel Things Fall Apart, explains the extent of bitterness and the causes that bring Nwoye to escape the prison he called home. Achebe included the intense nature of Nwoye and Okonkwo’s relationship in order to clarify how Nwoye is shaped by his relationship with Okonkwo. From the beginning of the novel, Okonkwo often rebuked Nwoye for being callow and for avoiding arduous work. Even at the age of twelve, Nwoye causes “his father great anxiety for his incipient laziness,” (Achebe 13). Not only did Okonkwo fear to be life Unoka, his …show more content…

This tension between them is expelled in the last fight scene between them, when Nwoye leaves his family for the church. Nwoye faces his father Okonkwo is the biggest fight scene. Nwoye is struck with fear when Okonkwo rebukes him and “suddenly overcame with fury, sprang to his feet and gripped him by the neck,” (Achebe 151). This interaction shows the lack of compassion in their relationship, as Okonkwo feels betrayed by his son Nwoye. Nwoye can no longer handle the derisive manner of his father and leaves his family. He finds happiness within the church and with Reverend Brown. After Nwoye’s departure, he threatens his other five sons: “he will only have a son who is a man, who will hold his head up among my people,” (Achebe 172). Okonkwo will do anything to ensure that his other sons end up like him and not like his incipient father or Nwoye. The nature of Nwoye and Okonkwo’s relationship push Nwoye to leave his home for the church. It shapes him as this traitorous and effeminate character in the story. In actuality, Achebe portrays a more audacious side of Nwoye as he retaliates social norms and his own father’s

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