Nwoye or Never
This particular author’s book didn’t necessarily inspire me, but it was very informational to real life situations that young men might go through. Growing up I have heard many African American males state that they don’t want to be like their fathers, because their fathers weren’t what they expected them to be. For that reason alone I choose to write about Things Fall Apart written by Chinue Achebe. In this essay I would like to share a brief summary about the book and this will help show why I felt that this author was informative with his writing.
Nwoye is Okonkwo’s eldest son, he was the total opposite of his father and that alone bothered Okonkwo. Okonkwo’s traits come off as very manly while his son has more feminine traits.
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Nwoye is different in personality, tendencies, and personal beliefs from his father and from the village itself. The text states that “ Okonkwo’s first son, Nwoye, was then twelve years old but was already causing his father great anxiety to his incipient laziness” (Achebe 13). Nwoye was mistreated and misunderstood, because he was different. However, in his father’s eyes that was his way of “fixing” his son. The frustration with Nwoye changed when Ikemefuna entered the picture. Ikemefuna comes in as an adoptive child and gives Nwoye someone besides his father to look up to. In a strange way, Ikemefuna fills the role of both father and brother for Nwoye, providing him with a peer to share his thoughts and a role model to follow behind. With time, the village decided that Ikemefuna must die, leaving Nwoye to grow even further away from his father. It almost seemed as if Nwoye had lost respect for him after he had lost his adoptive brother. Without Ikemefuna’s companionship and influence, and with a loss of faith in his father, Nwoye reverts to his former gentle nature, instead of adhering to the false masculine one he pretended to have in Ikemefuna’s presence. Okonkwo comes to view Nwoye as a disappointment and extremely unmanly. Neither father nor son is able to see and understand where the other is coming from. By Nwoye converting back to his old ways he is …show more content…
In my opinion the meaning of the book was to tell a story and to show how things can change over time. This changed from that to telling a story about brotherly love and the meaning of family. In the book most of the characters issues were based on family and not how colonization changed them. In chapter 16 of Things Fall Apart, “What are you doing here?” Obierika (a friend of Okonkwo) had asked when after many difficulties the missionaries had allowed him to speak to the boy. “I am one of them,” replied Nwoye. “How is your father?” Obierika asked, not knowing what else to say. “I don’t know. He is not my father,” said Nwoye, unhappily.” And so Obierika went to Mbanta to see his friend. And he found that Okonkwo did not wish to speak about Nwoye(16.3-6). Both parties – father and son – have expressed a wish to isolate themselves from each other and cut off all contact. Each is ashamed to be connected to the other because of how one another present themselves. Nwoye still hasn’t forgiven his father for killing Ikemefuna and Okonkwo is upset because of Nwoye’s new religion. Despite their shared blood, there is no affection or respect in their relationships, and thus they no longer consider each other to be family. That is an example of their family issues and how they all relate to each other. In today’s society many families are broken simply because of disagreements. I feel that Chinue achebe shows what father and
Nwoye is one of the characters that shows the culture clash in its full effect on both sides for an individual and for the old culture. We see that it impacts him very positively but it’s still not cool to take over a culture of another peoples. We see that Nwoye is one of the men of the tribe that doesn’t necessarily agree with their cultures and is facing an internal struggle all through part one. Nwoye is looked down as weak by his father.
Ex. Nwoye’s sense of identity made him think of becoming his true self. Nwoye started out in the novel as a normal ibo boy obeying his family and doing everything in the ibo culture, but the cultural collision of the British colonists and Ibo people affected him to the point of where he wanted to be just like them, abandoning his native customs. The reasons for his change in their sense of identity included him not wanting to be anything like his father. He saw how their religion was better than the ibo one, and he doesn’t fit in at home.The western people ideas and customs influenced Nwoye to become himself and let him feel free to do what he wants.
There isn’t dialogue in this passage, rather, it is used to provide description about Nwoye. The primary point is to provide the reader insight into Nwoye’s thoughts. There is conflict within the character between the side of him that wants to be a man and please his father, and the side that feels true to him, the one that dislikes violence and enjoys the childish stories that a mother tells to her children. There is also some foreshadowing in this passage and it sets up future conflict with his father. Right now, Nwoye is pretending to be someone he is not in order to keep his father
Unfortunately, everything is not perfect. His son, Nwoye, seems not to be showing the characteristics of a real man. He prefers to stay with his mother, listening to women's stories, than to listen to his father's tales of battle and victory. Later, when missionaries come to the tribe, Nwoye is attracted to their Christian religion because of its unqualified acceptance of everyone, much like a mother's unqualified love. Of this, Okonkwo r...
Okonkwo is supposed to be comforting to his children, but instead he hurts them. “Nwoye overheard it and burst into tears, whereupon his father beat him heavily. As for Ikemefuna, he was at a loss. His own home had gradually become very faint and
Okonkwo’s fear leads him to treat members of his family harshly, in particular his son, Nwoye. Okonkwo often wonders how he, a man of great strength and work ethic, could have had a son who was “degenerate and effeminate” (133). Okonkwo thought that, "No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children (and especially his women) he was not really a man" (45).
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 protagonist, Okonkwo demonstrates his sympathetic character solely to himself, personally, and infrequently not in the eyes of others. During the plotting of Ilemefuna’s death, Okonkwo was hesitant to make the boy aware of his fate and also hesitant to take part in his death. “‘I cannot understand why you refused to come with us to kill that boy,’ he asked Obierika” Okonkwo was aware that the adopted boy from an opposing tribe thought of Okonkwo, not only as an authority figure and high-ranking tribal member/warrior, but also as a father—his father. Until the death of Ikemefuna, Okonkwo continued to show Ikemefuna kindness due to feeling that “his son’s development was due to Ikemefuna.” (Achebe 3...
...fashioned man and his son (Nwoye) reminds him of his father, who he wasn't fond of. Okonkwo is never going to convert because of his traditional beliefs. His son’s converting was a major factor that led to his suicide. Okonkwo would rather die as an Ibo than live to see his culture fall apart.
In the Igbo world, family seems not as crucial as the modern world, at least Okonkwo does not care too much about all family members. Okonkwo’s first son named Nwoye, supposed be act like his father, is causing Okonkwo great anxiety. Instead of teaching him to be a real warrior, he does not spend a lot of time to train his son. He fear Nwoye will become his nightmare, Okonkwo’s father, and Okonkwo also afraid to teach Nwoye by himself. As a result, Nwoye grows up with his mother. Since Okownkwo is too timid to undertake raising responsibility, his son became the man as similar as Okownkwo’s father. Okownwo himself does not impute his mistakes about raising his son to his fear. Consequently, he blames his son to become a coward. During the exile, Okownwo is planning to help his other two sons to earn their titles and consider his daughters marriages. If Nwoye does not join the white people, Okownkwo will still give up on him. Even a criminal has his second chance, why Nwoye can not? Okownkwo is surrounded by his own fear, because he knows he is lack of ability to persuade his son to become a real warrior in the Igbo world. As a result, he chose the simplest way to avoid trouble, deserting his first son. In the whole story, Okownkwo never mentions about his mother’s name, though he is aware of mother is supreme. Okownkwo also ask his daughter to marry in his father’s village instead of his mother’s. Ikemefuna has not any blood connection with Okownkwo’s family, but he helps Okonkwo’s family a lot, he could be called a half family member in Okownkwo’s family. Someone thinks Ikemefuna could be a potential menace to the whole clan, so Okownkwo choose to believe Ikemefuna will cause a lot of problem in the future. No matter how much Ikemefuna contribute to this family, Okownkwo choose to kill him. After killing Ikemefuna, Okownkwo regrets and suffers. He fear to break the
“He wanted Nwoye to grow into a tough young man capable of ruling his father’s household when he was dead and gone to join the ancestors. He wanted him to be a prosperous man, having enough in his barn to feed the ancestors with regular sacrifices.” (Achebe 53). In Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart, it demonstrates how a person can change by the revealing of a new culture and how things can actually fall apart with an introduction of new ways. In the novel, Nwoye goes through a great deal of change while developing to the new culture.
This passage shows the reader that Nwoye is extremely different from many members of his family and the other members of the village. After Okonkwo learns that his son is interested in the new religion he is furious. Okonkwo has always been disappointed in his son. He believes that Nwoye is not as strong as a man of their clan should be. When Okonkwo was Nwoye’s ...
Okonkwo had dreams, some of his dreams were fulfilled while others weren’t. Okonkwo's dreams were to be successful and better than his father which happened because he was one of the greatest, well known and respected men in the tribe of Umuofia. His other dream was for his son Nwoye to be just like him which didn’t happen since Nwoye was not happy with the way he was being treated and he went and joined the white men church in spite of his father.
Nwoye – In the eyes of Okonkwo, his oldest son, Nwoye, is weak and lazy from an early age. He dislikes his father because he beats him so often to make him more masculine. After the death of Ikemefuna, Nwoye becomes very depressed and later converts to the Christian faith, which makes Okonkwo disown him.
Throughout history, there have been many instances of people struggling to identify and cope with change and tradition, and this is no different in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.