Okonkwo Flaws

In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart one can learn about the society of the Nigerian tribe the Igbo. The novel follows the life of Okonkwo, an angry and proud man, who lives in the village of Umuofia. Okonkwo is know throughout all the villages and is seen as a figure of strength and power. As the story evolves, Okonkwo makes mistakes that have costly consequences. In the beginning, the readers learn that Okonkwo is strong, intimidating, prideful, and violent. He is this way because he was ashamed of his father who was a coward, lazy, and held no titles. Okonkwo vowed to be better than his dad because his father was known as pathetic.This was the reason he took every chance he got and made sure people knew he was strong and motivated. Okonkwo

He grew up in the family of a failure and decided to change all that by being extremely traditional. He followed the culture like a religion. He was afraid to be seen as weak because the community hated his father and gave him a great amount of disrespect when they put him in the evil forest instead of burying him. The communities really respected hard work and self-determination, which can be seen plainly in Okonkwo, even though the people believed the Gods had their back and they understood the unpredictableness of nature (Foofo 1). Because of this, Okonkwo worked harder than any other, often throwing his emotions to the side. Though he is seen as an emotionless monster, Okonkwo is generally a respectful person. He does as the tribe says no matter how horrible the action may be and he does his best to make sure his family is fed and comfortable in their homes. A good example of his deeply hidden emotions is when his only daughter is taken by the villages priestess, Chielo. Though he puts on an uncaring face, inside he is deeply worried and ends up following his wife and Chielo. He was so ridden with anxiety for her safety that he did not sleep until morning when his daughter was returned to him. Okonkwo never voiced his fear because that would make him look weak, but he did feel it (Achebe 108 and 112) Okonkwo embodies the traditional Igbo culture for a man and that is why he can come off as a horrible person. The director of the program in comparative literature and cultural studies at the University of Arkansas, M. Keith Brooker, agrees with this in his web article when he wrote, “It is clear that Okonkwo can, to an extent, function as an allegorical stand-in for traditional Igbo society as a whole” (Brooker 104). Okonkwo has his personal