Things Fall Apart Nwoye Quotes

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Another significant character in Things Fall Apart is Nwoye, Okonkwo’s son, who succeeds to overcome external forces which threatened to interfere with his life’s stability, and through the character’s life choices, readers examine how to successfully balance their passions and responsibilities. As a child, Nwoye is constantly criticized for his actions by his father and never gets the chance to develop his own personality, instead, it is forcibly molded according to his father’s high expectations: “Nwoye was then twelve years old but was already causing his father great anxiety for his incipient laziness. At any rate, that was how it looked to his father, and he sought to correct him by constant nagging and beating” (11). This quote reveals …show more content…
As Nwoye becomes older and wiser, he then focuses on the more important priority of developing his own personality instead of always obeying his father’s orders, which was his responsibility as a child. Nwoye’s development then provides readers insight of the human condition relating to the struggles involved with the desire of becoming independent, and how people should work for this goal as long as it keeps the balance of their personal passions and responsibilities. These struggles are demonstrated by Nwoye, who felt the need to challenge social norms in order to develop a virtuous personality from his …show more content…
However, as Nwoye arrives at the point of his life where he should have the right to choose his path, he refuses to accept this imprisonment of having to follow unreasonable guidelines for the sake of pleasing his father anymore. Thus, readers recognize how it is important for people to balance passion and responsibility as well as remaining true to themselves and the ideals that they wish to follow. Even in today’s society, it is important for people to discover what they wish to pursue on their own, at a reasonable age, without external, controlling interference of others. It is still important to act responsible by respecting others’ advice, however if people’s morals don’t agree with those of their relations, then they have the right to reject it because they should be responsible for their own lives. As a result, Nwoye refuses to no longer waste his energy on expectations that he believed to be irrational and didn’t agree with his

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