Okonkwo's Perception Of Man Essay

Okonkwo has a distorted perception on what it means to be “a man”, as shown by his relationship with his father, Unoka, causing him to display aggressive tendencies to avoid being seen as meek.
Okonkwo’s thought of his father, Unoka, as weak leads to his twisted perception on what it means to be “a man”, resulting in his aggressive behavior towards weak mean. As Okonkwo was growing up, his father became more feeble, and the community started to take notice. Near the middle of Chapter Two, the narrator states, “Even as a little boy he had resented his father’s failure and weakness, and even now he still remembered how he had suffered when a playmate had told him that his father was agbala. That was how Okonkwo first came to know that agbala was not only another name for a woman, it could also mean a man who had taken to title” (13). Okonkwo has a vivid memory of a playmate making fun of his father, and calling him a word equivalent to a woman. Therefore, his understanding of what “a man” should be like is the opposite of his father, powerful. Later in the book, at the beginning of Chapter Four, while in a meeting a titleless man begins to interrupt and challenge Okonkwo, leading to the Okonkwo’s condescendingly saying, “This meeting is for men” (26). Because this man was titless, …show more content…
While growing up, a child is constantly around his or her parents and more commonly, the same sex parent. A father’s influence on a son can be both good or bad depending on the child’s view on the father. Specifically, as Okonkwo was a child, he loathed his father and everything he stood for, causing him to act dramatically merely so that he was not comparable to his father. This loathe also created a skewed perception, differentiating from the common opinion of his society, Umuofia. Parent-child relationships have the biggest influence on how the rest of a child’s life will play