Preview

How Did Okonkwo Rise To Fame Swiftly In Umuofia

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
73 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Did Okonkwo Rise To Fame Swiftly In Umuofia
achievements made Okonkwo rise to fame swiftly in Umuofia. We first notice Okonkwo’s uncontrollable anger with his relationship with Nwoye. Nwoye is a resembles of Okonkwo’s father, Unoka. In the text Unoka is described as a lazy man who was not a very hard working nor trustworthy person, he also never went to war due to his fear of blood; this completely opposes his son Ononkwo’s point of views in his violent

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

    Throughout literary works in the past decades, the story of the tragic hero has always been one of interest. In Things Fall Apart, Chinau Achebe tells the story of a hero who makes his own success and is highly respected. As the story develops, the audience experiences his downfall because of his tragic flaws. Okonkwo, the protagonist, fits the definition of a tragic hero because of his characteristics that lead him to his fall.…

    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Shortly after this, locusts swarmed Umuofia. The people of the Ibo community were very excited by this because it was a source of food for them. Okonkwo has a talk with Ogbuefi Ezeudu, the oldest man in the Ibo community, in which Ezeudu warns Okonkwo of the repercussions of taking part in the killing of Ikemefuna. Though when the time comes, Okonkwo ignores the advice in order to maintain his masculine image. Three days after Ikemefuna’s death, Ezinma has been struck ill. Okonkwo gathers medicine for her and she is restored to normal. At the funeral of Ezeudu, Okonkwo’s gun explodes, accidentally killing Exeudu’s sixteen year old son. For this, Okonkwo is exiled to his “motherland” of Mbanta for seven years, in which he lives with his uncle, Uchendu. In Okonkwo’s absence, Obierika watches over his yams and sells them when they are finished growing, and brings the product of these yams to Okonkwo. While Okonkwo is in exile, many changes occur in Umuofia. White missionaries have come to Umuofia, setting up churches and converting…

    • 405 Words
    • 2 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
  • Good Essays

    Okonkwo, one of the most powerful men in Umuofia, is feared and honored. For example, "Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond… He had brought honor to his tribe by throwing Amalinze the Cat"(3). In the Igbo culture, power and fame is established by fighting and wrestling. Okonkwo does not want anyone to think that he is weak and as a result he turns into the most famous and dreaded…

    • 688 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He lives in Umuofia for three years, under Okonkwo's roof; Okonkwo looks at him as a son, and to Nwoye he becomes best friend and brother. He is killed by the tribe; out of fear that otherwise people will think him weak, Okonkwo participates in the boy's death. Nwoye Okonkwo's son. Nwoye is sensitive and thoughtful, but he is also somewhat lazy and sulky. Okonkwo is harsh with the boy, fearing that he will become like Unoka.…

    • 3934 Words
    • 21 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    How Is Okonkwo Selfish

    • 944 Words
    • 4 Pages

    By Comparing Okonkwo and his father, Unoka, we found out they are quite different people. And the time that affected Okonkwo the most is when he was growing up, because he needed to support the whole family. Overall, Unoka is actually the one drives Okonkwo’s…

    • 944 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    "Okonkwo's machete descended twice and the man's head lay beside his uniformed body" (146). Okonkwo, the son of the effeminate and lazy Unoka, strives to make his way in a world that seems to value manliness. In so doing, he rejects everything for which he believes his father stood. Unoka was idle, poor, profligate, cowardly, gentle, and interested in music and conversation. Okonkwo consciously adopts opposite ideals and becomes productive, wealthy, thrifty, brave, violent, and adamantly opposed to music and anything else that he perceives to be "soft," such as conversation and emotion. He is gruff, at times, and usually unable to express his feelings, but his emotions and motivations are quite complex. Despite his overall image as a violent brute, Achebe shows Okonkwo as a tender, worried father and a hard worker, who had "cracked [his palm-kernels] himself" (19).…

    • 530 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Okonkwo's Fear Analysis

    • 257 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Okonkwo’s fear drives him to strive for success and honor in his clan; his fear is responsible for his high social status and his title. Okonkwo’s father had left him with absolutely nothing of value; no yams, no wives, not even a compound. He has to work very hard to build up his worth in the village and clan. “Any one who knew his grim struggle against poverty and misfortune could not say he had been lucky. If ever a man deserved his success, that man was Okonkwo.” (34, Achebe). Okonkwo couldn’t deal with just being happy, as Unoka had valued life, he needed the honor and the social status. He needed to wash away the stain that was his father. “Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond, His fame rested on solid personal…

    • 257 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

    Okonkwo was well known through out the nine villages because of his achievements in the tribe. Okonkwo had a great fear of becoming like his father. This had a rather large impact on his life and how his personality. Okonkwo's father, Unoka, was a lazy man whereas Okonkwo was a hard worker, Okonkwo ruled his house with a heavy hand and he was a man of war.…

    • 669 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Okonkwo Research Paper

    • 856 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Okonkwo is a well-respected man and warrior of Umuofia who rose from poverty and descended to destitution. As a boy Okonkwo was able to work hard and gain status, at his height he was progressively disgraced by a series of his own actions and banished from the tribe for several years. After returning Okonkwo gained some traction in his village but was imprisoned and died disgracefully through suicide. The most harmful event in his personal tragedy is the accidental murder of a clansman which led to his exile.…

    • 856 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    How Does Okonkwo Change

    • 613 Words
    • 3 Pages

    He was a man of action, a man of war. Unlike his father he could stand the look the blood. In Umuofia’s first war he was the first to bring home a human head” (Achebe 10). This shows that Okonkwo would not let anything get in the way of him. He is willing to fight in order to be seen as a strong and brave person.…

    • 613 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Okonkwo Flaws

    • 237 Words
    • 1 Page

    In Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart Okonkwo was flawed like every full blood human to walk the earth. He wasn’t perfect but he had an overall character of good. He was known through Umuofia as a hard worker and good provider. From the outside it may not look like Okonkwo cares for his family but deep down he really does. Okonkwo was a good man because he could provide for his family. He came from nothing, his father was worthless but he still achieved and “had two barns full of yams, and had just married his third wife”(8). He was a good man with a great work ethic and wasn’t scared to stick by his words:“I am not afraid to work”(21). He worked hard at everything he did. Deep down Okonkwo cared for his family. Okonkwo let Ikemefuna…

    • 237 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    “ 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…

    • 984 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays