Preview

Nwoye Okonkwo Analysis

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
180 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Nwoye Okonkwo Analysis
Nwoye Okonkwo’s eldest son suffers from his father's mistreatment. Okonkwo's behavior consists of comparing Nwoye to his father Unoka a titleless and unsuccessful man. In chapter 1 Unoka is described as “lazy and improvident” (4) in Okonkwo's eyes. Nwoye is a boy who has trouble adapting to his culture believes. In chapter 7 when Ikemefuna was “to be taken home” Nwoye over heard it and bursted into tears” he deeply saw ikemefuna as a brother. Nwoye is beaten by his father because he doesn't want his son to be seen weak, and believes males should be masculine. Nwoye dislikes his father's believes, he does not desire to be like his father. Nwoye continued to have the same dislikes for him and later turned into a Christian. Okonkwo's action
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Okonkwo In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart
    • 687 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Okonkwo In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

    His father fears raising a son like his own lazy father. As Nwoye grows up, Okonkwo tries to suppress any possible sign of this by “constant nagging and beating” (Achebe 14). From a young age, Nwoye internalizes that he is worthless. He only receives praise from his mother, who, as a woman, is supposedly insignificant. His greatest role model is constantly and violently ashamed of him. Nwoye feels like an outsider. He feels “a snapping inside him” after Okonkwo’s abuses. (Achebe 61). When the missionaries arrive, Nwoye visits the church out of curiosity and returns home to a harsh beating. As soon as Okonkwo lets him go, Nwoye “walk[s] away and never return[s],” leaving for a Christian school in another village (Achebe 152). To save himself, Nwoye has to escape his situation, but that means escaping everything. He cannot pick and choose and in the end has to leave everything that has made him who he is for a chance at…

    • 687 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Okonkwo's Injustice
    • 271 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Okonkwo's Injustice

    After Okonkwo was banished, he fled to his motherland because in the land he was living in now, represented as a father, he could succeed and was praised when he did so, but when he made a mistake, he was punished and sent away. When a boy is punished he goes to his mother’s to find empathy, just as Okonkwo had gone to his motherland after he was banished. “Nwoye overheard it and burst into tears, whereupon his father beat him heavily.” (21 online) Nwoye was beaten by his father for crying when Ikemefuna was leaving. After Nwoye was beaten, “Later, Nwoye went to his mother's hut and told her that Ikemefuna was going home.” (21 online) Once Okonkwo was done beating Nwoye, he found refuge in his mother’s hut and Nwoye felt comfortable enough…

    • 271 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart: Inevitable Suffering in Tragedies
    • 624 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart: Inevitable Suffering in Tragedies

    Nwoye also suffers more than his father's physical beatings. Okonkwo frequently compares his eldest son to his father Unoka and sees Nwoye as lazy and not masculine enough while Nwoye sought to please his father feigning his care for women's stories, acting the way Okonkwo…

    • 624 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Things Fall Apart- Explain how Okonkwos actions are motivated by fear in Things Fall Apart
    • 726 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Things Fall Apart- Explain how Okonkwos actions are motivated by fear in Things Fall Apart

    Okonkwo suffers the consequences of his actions being motivated by fear throughout Things Fall Apart. He damages his relationship with his family, and his actions lead to his eventual death. Okonkwo and his son Nwoye could never relate to each other. Both had totally different outlooks. Okonkwo was always trying to appear manly and trying to get Nwoye to appear the same way. These things were not really…

    • 726 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Songs which related to Things Fall Apart
    • 397 Words
    • 12 Pages

    Songs which related to Things Fall Apart

    This relates to Things Fall Apart, in Chapter 2 because you can see that Okonkwo pressures his son, Nwoye, to be just like him. Okonkwo then finds Nwoye, to be very lazy and starts to beat him to “man him up” and make him tough like a man should be. Nwoye then becomes more attached to Ikemefuna, who shows care and comfort and becomes very distant and shows no interest in his father Okonkwo anymore.…

    • 397 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Okonkwo Anti Hero
    • 845 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Okonkwo Anti Hero

    He didn't go through with the week of peace and he uses violence for everything. Okonkwo “broke the peace and was punished”(Achebe 29) He didn't follow the week of peace and decided to “beat his youngest wife just because she didn't get home early enough to cook the afternoon meal” (Achebe 29). He was so enraged and focused on beating his wife, he had forgotten the law. He lacked respect and fear to the earth goddess, the God in charge of the week of peace. He also lacked morals towards his own family. His short temper is what makes him not be a hero and gives Okonkwo less of a chance to gain people's sympathy. Furthermore, Okonkwo not only abuses women but he also hits his own young son. For example, when Nwoye found out his brother was dead he “burst into tears, whereupon his father beat him.” (Achebe 57). Then when Nwoye started showing interest in Christianity he felt like he couldn't trust his own father so “he dared not to go too near the missionaries for fear of his own father.” (Achebe 149) since his father had almost choked him. Okonkwo uses physical and mental violence and he doesn't care who he uses it with. Nwoye can't have his own opinions or be himself without having his father look down on him and beat him. Okonkwo can't be a hero because he makes people be scared of being themselves and be scared of him…

    • 845 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Igbo Religion In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart
    • 659 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Igbo Religion In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

    Okonkwo always speaks of the significance of their traditions, constantly reminding his firstborn of the pressure he has to be great. Ultimately, Okonkwo’s fears of his own father become a major factor in Nwoye’s journey to converting to Christianity. In order to prevent his son from turning into his own father, “[Okonkwo] sought to correct him by constant nagging and beating. And so Nwoye was developing into a sad-faced youth” (Achebe 13-14). Though Okonkwo’s heart is seemingly in the right place, his attempts to change twelve-year-old Nwoye only push him further away “[and] the boy was afraid of him” (Achebe 63). The apprehension caused by Okonkwo’s comments about laziness and masculinity are the start of Nwoye’s resistance to both his father and his religion. Even as a young boy, he oppressed his interest in subjects that were considered to be feminine, for fear of upsetting his father. Furthermore, despite his anger after Ikemefuna’s death, he continues to attempt to please his father and push his uncertainties to the back of his mind. However, upon the arrival of the Christian preachers, he begins to allow himself to ask the questions he has wondered all…

    • 659 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Songs Relating to "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe
    • 1182 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Songs Relating to "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe

    This relates to Things Fall Apart because in chapter 2 you can see that Okonkwo pressures his son, Nwoye, to be just like him. Okonkwo find Nwoye to be lazy and not manly enough so he beats and nags at him constantly. Nwoye then becomes more attached to Ikemefuna who is shows care and comfort and becomes less attached to his father who is far more heavy-handed and intimidating.…

    • 1182 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Ibo Culture In Things Fall Apart
    • 713 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Ibo Culture In Things Fall Apart

    his own culture ; he was open to a new culture. As a child, Nwoye wasis seen as lazy, as said in the book “was already causing his father great anxiety for his incipient laziness”(pg 23,Aachebe). The reason it caused his father anxiety was because he feared that Nwoye was becoming like hisokonkwo’s father, which Okonkwo wanted to avoid at all costs. Though for a short while Nwoye though he had figured himself out and had a desirewanted to please his father.…

    • 713 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Okonkwo's Cultural Changes
    • 1750 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Okonkwo's Cultural Changes

    Nwoye was never able to become close to or relate to Okonkwo, his father, because he is a very forbidding and outwardly unemotional. Okonkwo had a fear of being weak if he showed any emotion so he resorted to showing the only reaction he deemed manly enough; violence. Okonkwo constantly beat Nwoye when he didn’t live up to his high expectations, which lead to Nwoye growing up isolated and alone. Atleast he was until Ikemefuna was introduced into his life. Ikemefuna was sacrificed to Okonkwo’s clan after Ikemefuna’s cla had killed the wife of a man in Okonkwo’s clan.…

    • 1750 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Okonkwo's Relationships
    • 557 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Okonkwo's Relationships

    But his 12 year old son Nwoye was seeming to be lazy to and “was already causing his father great anxiety for his incipient laziness.” Okonkwo wanted his son to be strong, but since he wasn't he would beat him so that he would understand.…

    • 557 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Rebellion In Things Fall Apart
    • 950 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Rebellion In Things Fall Apart

    Nwoye’s character is there to show readers that there are certain individuals who are confused and not necessarily all accepting to the basic beliefs of their culture. He is a very innocent and curious young boy who finally has the chance to let go from his father’s control and lead his own life, the way he wants to. Nwoye is a character who demonstrates the other half, or the other side of balance in the Igbo culture. Throughout the story, they stress the importance of men and their role in society. They are expected to be very manly, brave and mentally and physically strong. There are some men who have acquired all these traits, and some men who haven’t. Nwoye is the rather, with his love for folk tales and his emotional understanding of others. Okonkwo stresses the importance of being manly to Nwoye, even when he clearly isn’t interested in the divided roles of gender. A father’s constant pressure to his son to become the best can ultimately lead to one’s definition of destruction. Achebe’s story highlights the importance of different roles among a society and the importance of balance between people with different ideas. It emphasizes unity and strength, even when people may not agree with some beliefs. Without structure in the world, things start to fall…

    • 950 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    What Is Okonkwo A Tragic Hero
    • 649 Words
    • 3 Pages

    What Is Okonkwo A Tragic Hero

    Okonkwo spent his whole life possessed by the fear of how his father lived his life. “He had no patience with unsuccessful men. He had no patience with is father.” (Achebe, 3) Okonkwo would beat his son Nwoye because he considered his as weak. In time, Nyowe became the person that he wanted him to be.…

    • 649 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Okonkwo Analysis
    • 807 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Okonkwo Analysis

    Okonkwo’s journey towards a prosperous life sprung from his desire to be unlike his father. During his childhood, Okonkwo suffered when he saw people begging for his father to return their money. Because of that, Okonkwo makes a promise to become a hardworking man. His first step is achieving greatness through wrestling. The moment he defeats Amalinze the Cat, who used to be an undefeated warrior up until then, is the moment clansmen realize how different Okonkwo is from his father: “His [Okonkwo’s] life had been ruled by a great passion-to become one of the lords of the clan. That had been his life-spring” (131). In comparison to Unoka, his father, who had nothing but debts, the protagonist decides to focus on work and living a superior life.…

    • 807 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Things Fall Apart Reaction Paper
    • 1414 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Things Fall Apart Reaction Paper

    b.) Nwoye is Okonkwo’s eldest son. He is not on good terms with his father and seemed to lose respect on him especially at the moment when Ikemefuna was killed. On the other hand, Okonkwo sees Nwoye as a disappointment. This is because of Okonkwo sees his father in him. In the latter part when Okonkwo was exiled for seven years, he was converted into Christian and had his new Christian name: Isaac.…

    • 1414 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics