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Okonkwo: A Character Analysis

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is about Okonkwo, a man in a Nigerian tribe who strives to be successful in a society that values masculinity and strength. Okonkwo rejects the traits of his father, who was seen as weak and lazy. Okonkwo achieves wealth and status through hard work and adopting "masculine" values like aggression. However, he struggles to adapt when British colonialism changes his tribe's traditions and values. Okonkwo's inability to change leads to his tragic downfall.

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99 views1 page

Okonkwo: A Character Analysis

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is about Okonkwo, a man in a Nigerian tribe who strives to be successful in a society that values masculinity and strength. Okonkwo rejects the traits of his father, who was seen as weak and lazy. Okonkwo achieves wealth and status through hard work and adopting "masculine" values like aggression. However, he struggles to adapt when British colonialism changes his tribe's traditions and values. Okonkwo's inability to change leads to his tragic downfall.

Uploaded by

rahemali4.09.zafar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Things Fall Apart

By: Chinua Achebe

Character Study: Okonkwo


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 stoic to a fault.

Okonkwo achieves great social and financial success by embracing these ideals. He marries three women
and fathers several children. Nevertheless, just as his father was at odds with the values of the community
around him, so too does Okonkwo find himself unable to adapt to changing times as the white man comes
to live among the Umuofians. As it becomes evident that compliance rather than violence constitutes the
wisest principle for survival, Okonkwo realizes that he has become a relic, no longer able to function
within his changing society.

Okonkwo is a tragic hero in the classical sense: although he is a superior character, his tragic flaw—the
equation of manliness with rashness, anger, and violence—brings about his own destruction. Okonkwo is
gruff, at times, and usually unable to express his feelings (the narrator frequently uses the word
“inwardly” in reference to Okonkwo’s emotions). But his emotions are indeed quite complex, as his
“manly” values conflict with his “unmanly” ones, such as fondness for Ikemefuna and Ezinma. The
narrator privileges us with information that Okonkwo’s fellow clan members do not have—that Okonkwo
surreptitiously follows Ekwefi into the forest in pursuit of Ezinma, for example—and thus allows us to
see the tender, worried father beneath the seemingly indifferent exterior.

Unoka

Unoka is Okonkwo’s father, who died ten years prior to the opening of the novel. Although Unoka is not
physically present in the novel, he plays an important role in Okonkwo’s memory. Ever since he was a
child, Okonkwo felt deeply ashamed of his father. For one thing, Unoka felt squeamish about blood. His
fear of blood prevented him from becoming a warrior and earning the kind of title that would have won
him distinction within the community. In fact, Unoka tended to be more of a drain on the community than
an active contributor. He had a reputation for borrowing large sums from various people, and he rarely if
ever repaid his debts.

Unoka also was drawn to creative activities, such as music. To Okonkwo, his father’s aversion to violence
and his preference for the arts marked him as an effeminate idler, precisely the opposite of what Okonkwo
hoped to become. In the novel, Unoka’s negative reputation drives Okonkwo’s obsession with
masculinity and personal achievement.

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