There are two kinds of people in this story. One is a good, kind hearted friend who knows what's best for him and his companions. The other is a man who is powerful and loyal to his people but dislikes showing any signs of softness. If you haven't figured it out by now whom I'm talking about then, you must really didn't read the story, it's Obierika and Okonkwo. You would think these guy be arch rivals or something due to both their personalities but you’d be surprised. Obierika relationship towards Okonkwo is rather simple, they are close friends. “As your close friend I want you to take my advice” They share a close bond, Obierika watches over Okonkwo stuff when he's not around. He also helps him when he was exiled out of the
Okonkwo is on two ends of a stick. Sometimes he can be shown to be a caring, sympathetic character, but others he is shown as a ruthless person that is very unsympathetic person. Okonkwo is a man of action that would rather solve things with his fists rather than talking it out. He is a great wrestler hailing from the Umuofia clan that has thrown Amalinze the Cat. Okonkwo is also a very good farmer, where he has been able to grow two barns worth of yams. He is someone that doesn’t know how to control themselves when they get angry as he will then resort to violence. Okonkwo’s family relationships make him a sympathetic character because of his caregiving nature and hospitality and he is shown to be an unsympathetic character because of his
Okonkwo’s fear of unmanliness is kindled by his father, who was a lazy, unaccomplished man. Okonkwo strives to have a high status from a young age and eventually achieves it. He has a large family, many yams and is well known throughout the village for his valor. He raises his family by his mentality of manliness and is ...
He was in great conflict with the ideas of the white men and the missionaries. Okonkwo saw that their beliefs had not only changed the daily life of the Ibo, but it also changed the people themselves: “He mourned for the warlike men of Umuofia, who had so unaccountably become soft like women” (Achebe 183). The author uses strong diction to compare the men before and after colonization. This quote also portrays Okonkwo’s opinion towards the cultural collision. He values strength and masculinity immensely because of his fear of appearing weak like his father Unoka. When he describes that the men of Umuofia changed to be soft like women, this shows how much he dishonors the Western ideas and how it has taken over the village. He made an attempt to get rid of the Western influence by urging the tribe to fight like men, but they refuse to. He was determined and still attempted to furthermore encourage the people of Umuofia to revolt against the new culture. He realizes that his attempts to return the village back to the way it was before were futile. He knew that Christianity was tearing his people apart, but knew he was incapable of making change to help his people. Okonkwo then starts to feel hopeless and abandoned by his clan, which causes him to commit suicide by hanging himself: “Obierika… turned suddenly to the District Commissioner and said ferociously: ‘That man was one of the greatest men
Okonkwo's moral ambiguity is not simply inherent in his character, but is developed by the situation he was presented with in life. Okonkwo's father Unoka, exhibited qualities during his lifetime that were not respected by his fellow clan members. During the beginning of the book the reader can relate to how Okonkwo would want to be respected and can be happy for his success. It is the simple tendency of the reader to be happy when the protagonist succeeds; therefore when Okonkwo defeats Amalinze the cat in wrestling the reader is satisfied with the outcome. Okonkwo's moral ambiguity is defined when it is made clear that Okonkwo simply discards his father, whose death was described as being very painful. Although Okonkwo's father was unsuccessful in life, the reader still pities him when he dies because he was a compassionate person. Even though Okonkwo appeals to the reader's own want to be successful, and is viewed positively for that reason, he is developed as a morally ambiguous character because of the lack of compassion he showed toward his father.
In the beginning chapters (Chapter 4) Okonkwo did not have a very good relationship with his two sons. He was a slightly more caring man when Ikemefuna was sick. But when they were assisting him in planting the seeds for the crops all he did was belittle them and make them feel bad about themselves and how they were completing the task at hand. By the end of this group of chapters (Chapter 7), his sons had loosened up to him and seemed to feel more open to how they had been treated. Although how Okonkwo acted was not okay, the relationship between them did strengthen and as he became more proud of his son, specifically Ikemefuna, he grew to like Okonkwo more. The end of the chapter however, showed that deep down the true colors of Okonkwo shined
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.
Okonkwo is “a man of action, a man of war” (7) and a member of high status in the Igbo village. He holds the prominent position of village clansman due to the fact that he had “shown incredible prowess in two intertribal wars” (5). Okonkwo’s hard work had made him a “wealthy farmer” (5) and a recognized individual amongst the nine villages of Umuofia and beyond. Okonkwo’s tragic flaw isn’t that he was afraid of work, but rather his fear of weakness and failure which stems from his father’s, Unoka, unproductive life and disgraceful death. “Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and weakness….It was not external but lay deep within himself. It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father.” Okonkwo’s father was a lazy, carefree man whom had a reputation of being “poor and his wife and children had just barely enough to eat... they swore never to lend him any more money because he never paid back.” (5) Unoka had never taught Okonkwo what was right and wrong, and as a result Okonkwo had to interpret how to be a “good man”. Okonkwo’s self-interpretation leads him to conclude that a “good man” was someone who was the exact opposite of his father and therefore anything that his father did was weak and unnecessary.
Okonkwo, alongside his desire for power and strength, also becomes absolutely ruthless. He treats his wives as property, even if doing so is the norm in his culture, and
...ke one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart” (176). Obierika should be the character that the reader sympathizes with instead of Okonkwo; he deals with the injustices caused by the missionaries without the flaws of Okonkwo, emphasizing his innocence.
Throughout the novel, Obierika was known as Okonkwo’s guide or the complete opposite of his personality. Obierika did not have any big consequences when it came to the culture collision because he was not like Okonkwo and things did not fall apart for him. Obierika was one of the people that triumphed when it came to this culture collision. He was able to be flexible and think before he took any action. As for the rest of the Ibo tribe they had lost the battle. The white men have “put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart” (Achebe
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...
Okonkwo was well known through out the nine villages because of his achievements in the tribe. Okonkwo had a great fear of becoming like his father. This had a rather large impact on his life and how his personality. Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, was a lazy man whereas Okonkwo was a hard worker, Okonkwo ruled his house with a heavy hand and he was a man of war.
Although the reader feels remorseful for Okonkwo’s tragic childhood life. It is another reason to sympathize with 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 wife 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).
Okonkwo wanted to become one of the greatest men in the Ibo tribe, but three unfortunate events occur bringing him closer to his end. Okonkwo was a proud, industrious figure who through hard work was able to elevate himself to a stature of respect and prominence in his community. The one major character flaw was that he was a man driven by his fear to extreme reactions. Okonkwo was petrified of inadequacy namely because his father was a complete and utter failure. This fear of shortcoming made him hate everything his father loved and represented: weakness, gentleness, and idleness. Who was Okonkwo, well Okonkwo was a hero and also he...
Obierika – He is a close and loyal friend to Okonkwo. He is always there for him, even when he is banished for seven years, Obierika still comes to visit Okonkwo and his family in the motherland. He also takes care of the yam distribution and it’s payment because Okonkwo is unable to do so.