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Basic text: Okonkwo's character in few words
Okonkwo's character analysis
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Okonkwo's downfall was predicted from the beginning. The book Thing Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is about the great warrior Okonkwo who builds his life in the Igbo tribe from the ground up. After adopting a child named Ikemefuna, Okonkwo's life goes downhill. Many things in Okonkwo's life could have caused his own destruction, but there are a few things that could have been bigger than others. I think that Ikemefuna's death played a big part, as well as Nwoye's betrayal, and his father's failure. Although Unoka and Okonkwo never had the greatest relationship, they are still father and son. Unoka had brought shame to his family. Never wanting great things, only borrowing and relying on others. Okonkwo always thought of
Okonkwo is known throughout Umuofia to be extremely masculine. He rarely shows signs of fear or weakness. This is because Oknokwo promised himself he would be the complete opposite of his father Unoka. Unoka had passed away ten years prior to when the story takes place but he has always been remembered as a weak, lazy, poor man who could barely provide for his family. He was always in debt and didn't care to work, he would play his flute all day everyday if he was able to. "People laughed at him because he was a loafer, and they swore never to lend him any more money because he never paid back" (5). Unoka was the laugh of the town and Okonkwo would never allow himself be that.
In these few chapters that we read, we have already learned a lot about Okonkwo, his life, and how he shows sympathy to some, but to others he is heartless. Okonkwo is other wise known as an unsympathetic person. Okonkwo is a clan leader of umuofia who holds many titles and is well known among his people. Okonkwo's daily life consists of tending to the three yam farms he has produced and to make numerous offerings to numerous gods and to help himself and his family. Okonkwo's personality is hard driven, since his father did not provide for him and his family Okonkwo had to start man hood early and this led him to be very successful in his adulthood, Okonkwo is an unsympathetic character who only shows sympathy rarely because he believes it's a sign of weakness Okonkwo's family relationships make him a sympathetic character because when his children show signs of manliness or do their jobs right he shows sympathy towards them. He is an unsympathetic character because whenever he get a little mad he has to take his anger out on something and that is usually vented by beating his wife's.
In “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe, Unoka and Okonkwo are father and son but they are written in such a way that they can be described as foil characters with very little characteristics in common. For example, one of the few things they both have in common is that they were both admired by the Umuofian community (even if it was for two different reasons). Unoka was admired for his proficient ability to play the flute even though he was considered an ‘agbala’. “Sometimes another village would ask Unoka’s band and their dancing egwugwu to come and stay with them and teach them their tunes”. Okonkwo, however, was praised for his achievements, ambitions, and success in life.
From birth Okonkwo had wanted his son, Nwoye, to be a great warrior like him. His son instead rebelled and wanted to be nothing like Okonkwo. Okonkwo would not change so that his son would idolize him, as he had wanted since his son's birth. He chose not to acknowledge his son's existence instead. This would weigh heavily on anyone's conscience, yet Okonkwo does not let his relationship with his son affect him in the least bit.
The foundation of Okonkwo’s fear of failure and weakness stems from the qualities possessed by Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, and his inability to succeed during his life. As a young boy, Okonkwo had always known and resented that his father was essentially the definition of a failure. Throughout Okonkwo’s childhood, he was constantly reminded of the fact that his father was unsuccessful: “... even now he still remembered how he had suffered when a playmate had told him his father was agbala” (Achebe 13). The word agbala has two different meanings, one referring to a woman and the other meaning a man who has taken no titles in the clan. Titles are an important part of the Ibo culture because they show a man’s achievement and success in the clan.
Unoka was seen as lazy, weak, and passive while Okonkwo strived to be strong, wealthy and successful. Okonkwo had feared of being weak so chose not to show emotions to others and he also killed Ikemefuna for the same reason. In the novel, Achebe writes, “ He heard Ikemefuna cry, "My father, they have killed me!" as he ran towards him. Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down.
Because of how Okonkwo and Nwoye were raised by their respective fathers, they developed in different ways and became completely different people as they aged. Unoka, Okonkwo’s father, was notoriously lazy, had many debts, and did not seek to achieve much in life
Since his childhood, Okonkwo has always been ashamed of his father, Unoka. Unoka was rarely able to feed his children, which made Okonkwo scared and embarrassed. When he went out into Umuofia, he found that the villagers had very similar opinions towards his father. As...
“With a father like Unoka, Okonkwo did not have the start in life which many young men had. He neither inherited a barn nor a title, or even a young wife. But in spite of these disadvantages, he had begun even in his father’s lifetime to lay the foundations of a prosperous future” (18). Most of his accomplishments were despite his father, whom Okonkwo loathed, but with whom I connected. In the novel, I relate more to Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, a much more laid back character. Like Unoka, I am in love with life, lazy, not worried about tomorrow, and deeply in debt.
“And so Okonkwo ruled by one passion-to hate everything that his father Unoka had loved. One of those things was gentleness and another was idleness” (Achebe, 13). Okonkwo’s father was a rather kind man in the clan but kindness go you nowhere in Umuofia. Young and old would call Unoka an agbala, which means a woman or a man with no title, once Okonkwo learned the meaning of the word he hated everything his father stood for. As Okonkwo grew he began to be emotionless because in his perspective anything positive would make him weak like his father.
The protagonist of things fall apart ,okonkwo is also considered a tragic hero. A tragic hero holds a position of power and prestige,choose his course of action,possesses of circumstance that lead to his fall. Okonkwo’s tragic flaw is his fear of weakness and failure. In his thirties, okonkwo is a leader of the igbo community of umuofia.
This is one of the most prominent motives for him losing is and choosing to deal with the westerners in the most violent way possible. Okonkwo being such a man of gratitude can see no such reason for his sons abandonment other than his own inapparent flaws. This drives him to the ultimate breaking point. He continues to let it build up though until he really
In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo and Obierika are best friends. Okonkwo is a leader of the lgbo community of Umuodia. He is the one who followed the traditional culture. In his culture, twins are evil. They have to put them in the evil forest if they get twins. Okonkwo refuses to compromise with the new culture from the white people. However, Obierika will think in a different way. In the book Things Fall Apart, Obierka was a “thinking” man. He is also a respected man in Umuofia. He often gives Okonkwo the reasonable suggestion. He cares about everyone’s life. “Obierika, who had been gazing steadily at his friend’s dangling body, turned suddenly to the District Commissioner and said ferociously: “That man was one of the greatest men in Umuofia. You drove him to kill himself; and now he will be buried like a dog…” He could not say any more. His voice trembled and choked his words”(Achebe, Page 208). For the twins’ problem, Obierika does not
Unoka – Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, was considered lazy and a failure. He never worked and always took from others. Okonkwo considered him a complete embarrassment and vowed never to be like his father. He had to hate what Unoka once loved, and never borrow money or stop working.
Okonkwo is an interesting character that experiences many changes throughout the novel. He is a self made member of the Umuofia community unlike his father. His father’s cowardliness and laziness never provided for him or the rest of his family. Growing up, he developed a fear of becoming like his father and that is why it became his influence and purpose in life is to live successfully. This is one of the reasons he reaches troubling times along with his Chi. The concept of Chi plays a big role in his destiny and it was can be interpreted two ways after reading the book. It is possible that Chi may have caused his difficulties, but I believe that he caused them himself because of his strong-willed nature.