Okonkwo

Fear is the shadow that lurks behind us, casting out a thick fog that shields our mind making it hard to reveal our true self. The concept of fear is a reoccurring theme that arises throughout Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart. Okonkwo, the main character of the novel, struggles with his fear of failure and weakness and tries to cover it up by appearing to others as a strong and masculine individual. However, Okonkwo’s mistaken outlook on masculinity causes him to commit belligerent and…

there. The book follows the life of Okonkwo though the first wave of the European invasion and how he reacts to their arrival. Okonkwo’s first response is shock at the lack of respect, followed by rage when he feels abandoned by his clan, and finally he is swallowed by self pity after seeing his world fall apart. When the Whites first arrived they have a condescending attitude toward the Ibo people and their beliefs which infuriates Okonkwo. The first time okonkwo meets the missionaries they…

generations of fathers and sons are antagonistic relationships. Unoka has no intent to influence Okonkwo’s behavior, although Okonkwo dedicates all of his energy into outshining his father’s legacy; while Okonkwo wants to influence his son, Nwoye, and ends up failing miserably. Okonkwo resents his father, Unoka, and his actions, and strives to be the opposite of him. Okonkwo and the clan consider Unoka to be a weak man and a failure. Achebe exaggerates that Okonkwo’s “whole life [is]…

complexity and uneasiness among the Ibo tribe who approach these new practices in disparate ways, lies the main character, Okonkwo. His soul possesses dissatisfaction with this concept of change, that he reacts head-on in a bitter and intimidating manner to resist the conversion of culture. Okonkwo wants to prove…

home a human head” (page 10). This is one of the lines in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart that make the story extremely primitive. The story is set in the 1890’s, where things are very different than they are in today’s world. Throughout the book Okonkwo and his tribe live in huts, he beats not only his wife but his kids, and beheads many people; and kill people. He also has numerous wives, or polygamy. Many of the people of the Umuofia tribe also stick to their customs when the British…

culture of the Igbo people. The novel tells the story of Okonkwo, a powerful village leader and the destruction of the village of Umuofia. Okonkwo’s father left the village in a tremendous amount of debt and this sets the stage for how Okonkwo feels about his own son Nwoye; he fears that he will become a failure like his grandfather because he seems to be lazy. However, the village wins a virgin and a fifteen- year- old- boy and Okonkwo takes in the boy, Ikemefuna, and treats him like his own…

man can show that he is tough was by avoid expressing their emotions except anger. “Okonkwo never showed any type emotion openly, unless it be the emotion of anger. To show affection was a sign of weakness,- the only thing worth demonstrating was strength,” (Chapter four, page 19). Okonkwo was not happy with his son Nwoye because he feels that his son’s behavior was not masculine. When Ikemefuna was living with Okonkwo he admired Ikemefuna because he felt he was masculine. Nwoye show…

However, it can be said that Man vs. Man is the most prevalent of these forms within this work. The Man vs. Man conflict form in Things Fall Apart covers the relationship between the main character, Okonkwo, and his first son, Nwoye. In the novel, Okonkwo and Nwoye’s relationship is challenged by Okonkwo 's hyper masculine standards, the loss of Ikemefuna, and the introduction of Christianity to Ibo society. Within the Ibo culture a man’s status is determined by his personal accomplishments as…

a strong but also weak man, Okonkwo, who’s world was turned upside down with the coming of Western religion. He experienced a tragic fall after the Western missionaries arrived. The theory of Western tragedy is that a great man falls from prosperity to disaster, and the concept of the Aristotelian model is that tragedy is an imitation of an action through pity and fear effecting the release of these emotions. The plot of Things Fall Apart and its protagonist (Okonkwo) adhere to the conventions…

traditional couldn’t accept the new culture or religion. Achebe’s Thing fall apart and ASAMOAH-GYADU, J. KWABENA’s “’The Evil You Have Done Can Ruin the Whole Clan’: African Cosmology, Community, and Christianity in Achebe’s Things Fall Part” show how Okonkwo would do anything to prevent showing his weakness and converted to Christian. He would do anything to prevent loseing his honor in his society because his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness like his…