Okonkwo paper

The struggle for the regular human being
Chinua Achebe’s main character, Okonkwo, struggles with change within in himself and his surroundings throughout the book, Things Fall Apart. Even though Okonkwo resists change, we notice as the audience the natural human feelings within him: love, happiness, and care. As the story progresses the conflicts within the story does too affect our feelings for Okonkwo when he acts rashly towards these conflicts. We always seem to be brought back to sanity with Okonkwo because we have an insight of the human Okonkwo is. In a way, we as the audience understand Okonkwo and are able to notice the true human being we know he can be, loving, and caring. We start to realize after the first 3 chapters that Okonkwo is capable of loving someone but is hesitant to show his affection because he stuck on defeating the man his father was. The one character that helps us capture Okonkwo’s love is Ikemefuna, a nearby village boy forced to stay in Okonkwo’s village. In chapter four, page twenty eight, third paragraph says , “Even though Okonkwo himself became very fond of the boy—inwardly of course. Okonkwo never showed any emotion openly, unless it be the emotion of anger.” This feeling of Okonkwo proves to us Okonkwo is capable of care and love. In the same paragraph it also explains Okonkwo’s opinion on affection and why affection is unacceptable for man because that was a sign of unsuccessfulness and was a thing his father would do. Okonkwo’s deployment of care and love is affected greatly because of his idea of a successful man that he created after realizing the man his father was. As the audience we tend to perceive Okonkwo as alien like and drastically angry in ridiculous situations, but if we dive into the depths of the misconceived, we habit into a better understanding of this erratic character and can capture the love and care he is able to possess. As we travel through Things Fall Apart we are able to pick out those moments of love and care with Okonkwo. In chapter seven, pages fifty two and fifty three explains Okonkwo’s gratitude towards Nwoye and his progress in becoming the man Okonkwo wants him to be. Gratitude is a sign of love and care, and when Okonkwo is able to appreciate Nwoye’s shift into the ideal man, we are able to picture Okonkwo as a decent human being. Through the course of the novel we notice the love and care Okonkwo can have, but we can also notice the change that happens with Okonkwo. A sudden shift in tragedies from the people of the village to Okonkwo makes a drastic change in his character and how he perceives his overall surroundings. In chapter fourteen, page one hundred thirty five Uchendu tells a great speech of how he lost everything that was meaningful in the African culture and still did not suffer greatly to a point of suicide. I believe this speech affected Okonkwo greatly which is one of the key pieces for the next chapters. In the end of this book we reflect on the hard struggle Okonkwo has for change and we realize Okonkwo was not strong enough to face his troubles . The battle Okonkwo picks with defeating his escape of his father’s title was the tip of the ice burg. From there Okonkwo struggles with multiple conflicts breaking his straw built wall and tumbling down with the homecoming of a seven year long vacation away from Umofia. Even though Okonkwo suffered with his surroundings, we can look back at his character and say he struggled as a regular human being.