Preview

Examples Of Okonkwo In Things Fall Apart

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
984 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Examples Of Okonkwo In Things Fall Apart
The Martyr A man’s quest to rebuild a once sacred tradition is soon forgotten and he himself, massacred by his own hands. Umuofia, a war like a village is quickly torn apart when white colonists ravage there once sacred religion into corruption and in this, a man named Okonkwo faces them and tries to summon an insurrection to chase the “evil” and bring back a once peaceful village. Okonkwo ultimately loses himself in search of his ideals through his own actions and radical perspectives. Okonkwo's actions tend to be wrapped around his ideals that he must outgrow his father’s shadow and that to be successful, one must commit to physical labor. Being weak in the land of Umuofia is usually seen as being feminine. “ When Unoka died he had taken no title at all and he was heavily in debt. Any wonder then that his son Okonkwo was ashamed of him? Fortunately, among these people, a man was judged according to his wort hand not according to the worth of his father…He was a wealthy farmer and had two barns full of yams and he had taken two titles” (16). Okonkwo usually averts from emotions for he believes showing emotions besides anger may lead to being weak and feminine, something that his father was quite …show more content…

“Afraid? I do not care what he does to you. I despise him and those who listen to him. I shall fight alone if I choose” (240). Okonkwo mainly talks about Egonwanne the town crier. Egonwanne’s nature of having a persuasive voice alerts Okonkwo’s plan of fighting against the “tyrannical” nature of the white men and their new religion. Okonkwo proudly declares his courage to fight whoever he wants eventually gets him into even deeper into his beliefs of masculinity and towards his religion. Upon his discover that everyone is resilient to change Okonkwo is even more driven to hatred. This evidence was mainly foreshadowing his gruesome

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Okonkwo- An influential clan leader in Umuofia. Since early childhood, Okonkwo’s embarrassment about his lazy, squandering, and effeminate father, Unoka, has driven him to succeed. Okonkwo’s hard work and prowess in war have earned him a position of high status in his clan, and he attains wealth sufficient to support three wives and their children. Okonkwo’s tragic flaw is that he is terrified of looking weak like his father. As a result, he behaves rashly, bringing a great deal of trouble and sorrow upon himself and his family.…

    • 1227 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One of the main reasons supporting this statement is because Okonkwo was always a coward. Everything he acted on was driven by a fear of appearing weak. What he did not understand was that this mindset automatically makes him weak. A stereotypical hero is brave and overcomes his fears. In the end of the novel, Okonkwo tries to run from his phobia one last time by killing himself and leaving his clan to the colonizing dogs. By doing so, he did not leave a significant impact on his people. Although he attempted to gather them together to fight back against the colonists, he failed and let his anger get the best of him. All he did was intensify the fight by killing the messenger, and killing himself when the white men demanded to see him. Before returning to Umuofia, Okonkwo also did not pay any respects to his people. He tried to keep his friends close but completely disregarded his family in light of his malevolence. Eventually, he killed his own “son” and his own clansman. Did he save anyone in the process? No, he did not; he lost the respect he gained from others towards the beginning of the book, and ultimately gave…

    • 1342 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    To begin with, Okonkwo’s death marks the end of the Ibo culture in Umuofia. Anxious to return home, Okonkwo does not understand why everyone is allowing the missionaries to interfere with their lifestyle. Imposing a new religion and government, the white men do not understand or seem to care about how the clan operates, focusing solely on converting the clansmen to a supposedly superior ideology. As a result of his upbringing, Okonkwo is not afraid to fight for what he believes in, his tribe and culture, unlike most of the people in Umuofia. Originally convinced that Umuofia would fight against the new religion,…

    • 697 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    What is a tragic hero? According to Aristotle " he is a character who is noble in nature, has a tragic flaw and discovers his fate by his own actions". Okonkwo is a tragic hero in Achebe's "Things Fall Apart". Is Okonkwo an Aristotelian tragic hero? By Aristotle’s definition Okonkwo meets all the criteria and although written thousands of years apart and in different cultural settings Okonkwo is comparatively similar to Oedipus in Sophocles’ “Oedipus the King”.…

    • 163 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Religion is threatened, Umuofia loses its self-determination, and the very centers of tribal life are threatened. These events are all the more painful for the reader because so much time has been spent in sympathetic description of Igbo life; the reader realizes that he has been learning about a way of life that no longer exists. Greatness and ambition Okonkwo is determined to be a lord of his clan. He rises from humble beginnings to a position of leadership, and he is a wealthy man.…

    • 3934 Words
    • 21 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo's actions take place because he is afraid of becoming "A Woman" like his father. Not only does he act masculine to appear manly to the villagers, he does it to satisfy his own conscious. Okonkwo portrays a short temper in this book. Small things such as his supper being late and remarks about his hunting anger him, and lead to his beating of his wives and his son Nwoya. His desire to appear manly often fogged his judgment. When the time came to kill Ikemefuna, the boy who called him father, he was told by his best friend that he should not take part in this because the boy looked up to him. Okonkwo knew his friend was right. When he, Ikemefuna and other leaders of the tribe went to the woods to carry out the task, Okonkwo did not want the other men to think that he was weak so he cut down his own son. Okonkwo's actions were also motivated by the fear that his whole village would become weak. After returning from his exile in Mbanta, Okonkwo realized that the Christians were taking over. Unlike the rest of his tribe he wanted to go to war with them and drive them out. Soon he realized that during his seven years in exile Umuofia had changed and no longer was feared tribe it used to be. Okonkwo continued to fight the inevitable. His actions were never able to help his village; his worst fear had come true, they had become weak.…

    • 726 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, was extremely lazy and sickly, while Okonkwo was constantly active and seen with respect throughout the tribe. Unoka had one wife and no title, which showed his lowly importance in the tribe. Unoka was weak and couldn’t support his family, which causes Okonkwo to start working at a young age, so he could take care his family. “Unoka, the grown-up, was a failure. He was poor and his wife and children had barely enough to eat.” Okonkwo lived in constant fear of failure. Okonkwo didn’t like showing emotions, unless it was anger. He ruled his household with a heavy hand and with constant threats to his many wives. “His wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper, and so did his little children.…

    • 156 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    When first introduced to the idea of a cultural change by the British Colonials, Okonkwo was furious in that he felt that these colonists were only trying to destroy the existence of one’s masculinity through these new sorts of religious and or cultural practices, and that in agreeing to conform, he would only become less of what he felt a “man” really was. In order to ensure that he was not one to conform, Okonkwo began acting out in random acts of violence such as killing people and going on mad rants throughout the Igbo village. To Okonkwo, this was a sign of masculinity, and he felt that the more aggressive someone was, the more masculine they appeared to be to someone else. Okonkwo continued to become this way in order to further establish his head-strong opinions concerning the need to continue practicing…

    • 640 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Okonkwo Research Paper

    • 856 Words
    • 4 Pages

    With Okonkwo’s ideas, the people of Umuofia would not have been taken over in such a manner, Okonkwo is very aggressive and fearless and would definitely have lead the tribe to war if need be. However, the tribe is now weak and only after the Christians have unmasked and killed an egwuwu did they react with any sort of force. After this act of force Okonkwo and five other men were called by the Commissioner and imprisoned; these men were beaten, starved, and dehumanized for days. Their release was only allowed when the tribe paid a hefty fine and after this abuse, the tribe failed to stand up against measly messengers. After killing a messenger and seeing the weakness of his tribe Okonkwo commits suicide tarnishing his…

    • 856 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the Ibo culture, masculinity is valued as being strong when faced with difficult times. Anything else is regarded as feminine. Okonkwo chooses to kill Ikemefuna to demonstrate his full acceptance of the values of masculinity and the prominent hold it has had on his life, to the point where nothing else matters. Manliness, the dominant principle of his life, finally corrupts Okonkwo to put above masculinity above family, feminine feelings, and future…

    • 957 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Okonkwo was impulsive; he acted before he thought without considering the consequence. Furthermore, he isolated himself by exhibiting anger through violent, irrational behavior. He was quick to anger. During the annual week of peace before planning time, tradition permitted no one to speak a hash word to other person in the village. However, one day during this week, Okonkwo beat his youngest wife, who went to a friend’s house to braid her hair and forgot to prepare Okonkwo’s meal and feed her children. Even he was reminded of the ban on violence, he didn’t stop the beating. However, his fear of weakness and failure also was his tragic flaw. Consequently, he didn’t take the advice that not to participate in the murder of Ikemefuna. Therefore, he actually killed Ikemefuna because he was afraid of being though weak. Moreover, Okonkwo was a man of action. He did things without considering the consequence. This flaw brought him a serious consequence at the end of the story. After the release from jail, Okonkwo thought about his revenge. He hoped Umuofia will wage war on the intruders. If they didn’t, he would take action on his own. In the next morning, the clansmen were lead to a meeting which was about took action against the unwanted strangers to rid…

    • 935 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Okonkwo’s overbearing pride in himself results in unforeseen consequences for his family and others which come in contact with him throughout the book. Case in point, when Okonkwo was told by an elder of the Umuofia not be getting involved with the killing of Ikemefuna because as he was told “that boy calls you father.” Prompting, Okonkwo to be exiled and sent to live with his mother for 7 years. Which resulted from the unfortunate killing of Ezeudu's son from the misfiring of a bullet. Rather than just listening Okonkwo’s pride slapped him in the face and being looked upon as weak was no option.…

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Norman Mailer Quotes

    • 778 Words
    • 4 Pages

    He was masculine, hardworking, reputable, and wealthy. He didn't want to be like his father, a failure. Okonkwo believed his father was a failure because the man was very lazy, disgraceful, and poor. Over the years in his village it was said by the elders, “...if a child washed his hands...and so he ate with the kings.” This quote indirectly characterizes Okonkwo, displaying how he knew what he had to do if he wanted to be a great hero, furthermore developing his character as a young man. Towards the end of the novel one can imagine Okonkwo as a tragic hero because, like other tragic heroes, he has one major flaw. His main flaw develops from his fear of being like father, whom he dispised. He as well can't display his emotions because he doesn't want to look weak or sissyish, and when he does show any emotion, it is an uncontrollable rage. As a result of his flaws, Okonkwo has suffered countless tragedies, which ultimately leads to his ironic death. Okonkwo's tragedy was due to many things that happened in Umuofia, but the main reason was the arrival of the white missionaries, “Does the white man understand our custom about land?” (chpt. 20). Okonkwo says this, due to his…

    • 778 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Okonkwo wants his village, Umuofia, to run the Christians out of his land for their mistreatment and disrespect of Igbo religion and culture, but his villagers want the Christians to stay, so Okonkwo bands together with other Igbos that want the Christians out and finally make their stand against them and their ways. Okonkwo shows that encountering a new culture can be confusing with introducing…

    • 791 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the killing of Ikemefuna, many aspects of Okonkwo’s character is exposed. I realised that despite Okonkwo’s tough exterior, he is very insecure, constantly worried about people’s perception of him. Also, through this, we see the softer side of Ok, which is his concern for Ikemefuna, a feeling which he constantly tries to suppress. Finally, Okonkwo’s stubbornness and his unquestioning loyalty to the tribe is also surfaced.…

    • 463 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays