Okonkwoye In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

In the novel, Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo treats both of his kids differently. Nwoye, Okonkwo’s son, struggles under the shadow of his strong and powerful father and is more like Unoka. On the other hand, Ezinma is Okonkwo’s favorite child, she is very bold and Okonkwo wishes she was born a male because he feels that she has the spirit of a boy. Okonkwo treats Nwoye and Ezinma the same at first but changes to treating Ezinma better. In the 2nd chapter of the book Okonkwo already starts seeing that Nwoye is not headed in the right direction, “Okonkwo’s first son, Nwoye, was twelve years old but was already causing his father great anxiety for his incipient laziness.” (Achebe Chapter 2 page 13). This means that Okonkwo already starts to get scared of his sons future when he is only twelve because he is lazy and doesn’t show a sense of urgency. “He sought to correct him by constant nagging and beating. And so Nwoye was developing into a sad faced youth.” (Achebe Chapter 2 page 14). Nwoye was afraid and didn’t know what he was doing wrong. Okonkwo treats Nwoye badly because Nwoye reminds him of his father, Unoka. …show more content…
She had the perfect characteristic to get along with Okonkwo; even he said “She should have been a boy.” (Achebe Chapter 8 page 64). The African tribe in which Okonkwo, Nwoye, and Ezinma live in is a patriarchy; this means that men are looked as more powerful than women. Because of the patriarchy, at first Okonkwo doesn’t like Ezinma because he is just being sexist. Ezinma is very nice, helpful and does her womanly jobs which makes Okonkwo change is opinion about her, “Ezinma took the dish in one hand and the empty water bowl in the other and went back to her mother’s hut.” (Achebe Chapter 8 page 64). Ezinma follows her orders and has a great positive