Okonkwo's tragic flaw is that he fears looking weak and letting emotions get the best of him is what lead him to his ultimate downfall. Okonkwo was a courageous and wealthy man throughout his tribe. In his culture, where titles, money, and wives were looked upon, Okonkwo received many titles and had several children with several wives. He worked hard for his success, for he was not born into it. His father, Unoka, was a well-known for his laziness in the village.
Okonkwo and Macbeth are both heavily influenced by other characters, fuelled by the expectations of their societies, and driven to act based on their tragic flaw. The reason behind all the actions Okonkwo takes can be traced back to one person; his father. Okonkwo grew up hating Unoka’s laziness and he “was ruled by one passion- to hate everything that his father Unoka had loved” (Achebe 13). This led him to rule “his household with a heavy hand” (Achebe 13), and treat his family poorly. He is afraid to show affection, as seen with Ezinma and Ikemefuna.
It was not external, but lay deep within him. It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father. Even as a little boy he had resented his father’s failure and weakness, and even now he still remembered how he had suffered when a playmate had told him that his father was agbala. That was how Okonkwo first came to know that agbala was not only another name for a woman, it could also mean a man who had taken to title. And so Okonkwo was ruled by one passion – to hate everything that his father Unoka had loved.
People have become so defensive about even the smallest matters because of this. Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is one of the foremost sufferers. Twain knowingly wrote on an extremely touchy subject because of his love to make people aggravated and think more about the world around them. He was willing to point out the flaws in society by pushing the limits in his book. Twain puts a young white boy in a grand journey with an enslaved black man, running for his freedom.
Leeann Kolher/Meier Theme Period 1 13 December 2011 Character Analyst: Okonkwo All people have defining characterizes about themselves. The book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe follows Okonkwo, a village leader who one of the most powerful men in Umuofia. Okonkwo’s defining characterizes are that he is diligent, stubborn and narcissistic. Okonkwo shows this though his words and actions in the novel. Okonkwo feels ashamed of his father, Unoka and, fears becoming like him.
Unoka’s personality and way of living can be related to feminism, a trait that Okonkwo also shows narrow-mindedness towards. Okonkwo lives in a society run by men. He shows no emotional weaknesses, which is why it is hard for him to show affection towards his family. He views women as being weak and much like his father he does not tolerate weakness. During the Week of Peace Okonkwo beats his wife, Oljiugo, not wanting to show any sign of weakness.
Anse Bundren is an uneducated farmer whose selfish tendencies in his personality result in poor parenting and relations with others. Anse is extremely selfish as well as stubborn and throughout the book he butts heads with the other characters. For Anse his wife's death is just bad luck and he seems only to feel bad for himself, not for the loss of her. Even his intentions for her burial are laced with selfishness because he will acquire a new set of false teeth. Anse’s exaggerated traits of selfishness distance him from the other characters and others tend to dislike him because of his self-centered personality.
Though Cholly was humiliated by the white men, “he hated the one who had created the situation, the one who bore witness to his failure, his impotence” (151). Cholly’s hatred with himself for being emasculated is channeled towards Darlene, and throughout the rest of his life, women in general. His hatred is openly exhibited towards his daughter, Pecola, as he mistreats her and exploits her because of his own self-loathing. After raping Pecola, Cholly notices that, “again the hatred mixed with tenderness. The hatred would not let him pick her up” (163).
Spill his blood! Do him in!” (Golding 152). In the beginning of the novel Jack was not able to kill the pig. He murdered Simon with the rest of the savages because evil was unleashed in their society. As a result, Jack painting his face represents him letting go of society and civilization, to being a savage devoted to hunting and killing.
This is shown in chapter one which describes how ‘Unoka, the grown up, was a failure. He was poor and his wife and children had barely enough to eat.’ This deep contextual evidence of the father that represented everything Okonkwo despises shows his shallow view of acceptance in society, disregarding the values of family. This individual assertion of belief from Okonkwo contrasts with Salem’s need for collective strength to gain results. Achebe consistently refers to Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, throughout the text as a recurring image contrasting with Okonkwo’s aspirations in order to remind the reader of Okonkwo’s motivation of venturing to belong in a heavily masculine