Okonkwo In Things Fall Apart

In the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo has good qualities to him such as being a hard worker, and he is respected throughout the villages, but he often blocks his emotions and becomes a murderer. These actions make him seem like a bad person which makes him actually become one and leads him to being banished from the village. He is strong and honorable but his offsets often distract people from the real Okonkwo. Okonkwo is an unsympathetic character with his wives Ojiugo and Ekwefi. Okonkwo is an unsympathetic person towards Ojiugo by not understanding that she only wanted to spend time with her friends and go out and not be confined to her husband’s home. He “was provoked to justifiable anger by his youngest wife who went to plait her hair at her friend’s house and did not return early enough to cook the afternoon meal.” “He walked back to his obi to await Ojiugo’s return. And when she returned he beat her very heavily.” During this time, it was the Week of Peace, and although he knew this, he beat his wife and disobeyed the rules of the gods. …show more content…
“Without further argument Okonkwo gave her a sound beating and left her and her only daughter weeping.” Even though Okonkwo already taught his wife a lesson, he continues to abuse her and is unsympathetic towards her when she only cut leaves to store food that Okonkwo had eaten and left the tree very much alive. He goes to express his anger by hunting, “and so [when] he sends Ikemefuna to fetch his gun...”. “...The wife who had just been beaten murmured something about guns that never shot. Unfortunately for her, Okonkwo heard it and ran madly into his room for the loaded gun, ran out and aimed at her...”. Conflicts lead him to almost killing his wife due to unjustifiable