Things Fall Apart Character Sketch

Okonkwo from a young age learns the importance of, as a man in his village, being a hard worker and the fruits that that characteristic bears. Seeing his father Unoka lazily let his life pass him by, Okonkwo leaned first-hand the consequences of not being a hard worker. It was this experience that drove in the need or desire in him that if he worked hard enough constantly at everything that he did then he would never be anything like his father. He would be able to earn the respect and titles that his father seemed to have no interest in. He could build the life and legacy for himself that would set him apart from the path of his father and he would never have to be worried about being considered an agbala like his father. Thus Okonkwo’s main purpose in life became to be everything that his father was….weak. He could not show weakness in any sense. This in itself was his very weakness and played a role in his down fall. After his seven year exile was up Okonkwo was ready to return home and to resume things as they were when he left. The thing was the culture had changed. There was less and less of a need for the men of titles. They were no longer really serving the purpose that they once did before Okonkwo left. There was no way for him to now be set apart from the rest of the village, for him to show his strength and leadership the way he had before. All that he had worked so hard for all his life was now inadvertently upon him in the sense that their way of life had been taken over and no one really wanted to stand up to take it back for one reason or another. For Okonkwo to just sit back and do nothing as well was not in him. So after a fit of rage and beheading a messenger, he did the only thing that he had left to do in which he seemed to have some power over and that was ending his own life. Given the world that Okonkwo lived in it is understandable why he had this thirst for acceptance, especially when he lived first hand as a child the result of not