Okonkwo was scared of people thinking he was just like his father so he worked hard since he was a child. This made him hate everything his father was made of, which is weakness and being lazy. ”Even as a little boy he had resented his father’s failure and weakness”. (13). when Okonkwo father died he had been in a lot of debt, Okonkwo became obsessed with the idea of manliness in order to get over his father weakness.
In their village, having no title (as a male) means that you aren’t worthy or powerful. Understanding that Okonkwo was very afraid of failing, even more afraid of being like his father. Meaning having no power, or being worthy. The narrator tells us that Okonkwo, “...was ruled by one passion - to hate everything his father Unoka had loved. One of those things was gentleness and another was idleness.” (Achebe pg.13).
An Obsession With Perfection The journey that Okonkwo takes in the novel goes from hero to villain. This downward journey is caused by many factors. The character Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart is obsessed with proving his masculinity, often by beating his wives and son. Okonkwo’s flaws lead to misery for himself, when he is unable to realize not every action must be a vigorous one. His family suffers when he takes his anger out on them for the simplest things just to prove he is a man.
When Okonkwo takes part in the murder of the young boy, his birth son, Nwoye, loses all respect for his father, and that is the turning point in Okonkwo’s life because he no longer is the valued individual among all members of his family. In Okonkwo’s understanding, “No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children (and especially his women) he was not really a man” (Achebe 58). This chapter drives the plot because Okonkwo is no longer respected by his only son, who was the one person that he had the most faith and hope in. In terms of character, Okonkwo did not respect his own father, so he wanted to make sure that this wasn’t the case with his children, especially his son. Okonkwo wants Nwoye to grow into a strong and powerful man,
Additionally, the novel continues to tell the story of Okonkwo and his family. Towards the middle of the novel his attitude continues to cause him problems. His actions cause his and his family’s life to alter. In chapter thirteen of the novel it states, “Okwonko’s gun had exploded and a piece of iron had pierced the boy’s heart.” It continues to say, “The only course open to Okonkwo was to flee from the clan.” During a ceremony an unexpected turn of events causes Okonkwo and his family to be exiled. Due to his personality
Okonkwo had a horrible temper and this caused him to be very violent. He depicted these actions by beating his family in effort to control them, he believed his first son Nwonye was like his father therefore, he beat him often in attempt to make him more manly. He also beat up his second wife because he came back from outside and his afternoon meal had not yet been prepared, disregarding the fact that it was a peace week and every family was supposed to be peaceful. He made poor decisions by participating in the killing of the boy Ikemefuna who lived with him and called him father, after he had been warned not to participate in his killing. The continuous disagreement between Okonkwo and the new religion, people, and values adopted by his society results in his life falling apart and suicide, at the end of the book.
He does not care if it cost him his life. As he told Joe that he should just kill him, it shows clearly that Alistair not really think he can give himself peace. He knows that his life was "ruined" the day he shot James Griffin, Joe's older brother. It would plague him the rest of his life. Although he took his punishment in prison, 12 years.
It is Okonkwo’s all-consuming search for the ultimate masculinity, and in turn an identity, which creates a tide of consequences that never fulfill this need and instead ultimately lead to his destruction. Okonkwo is known to be one of the fiercest and most accomplished warriors of the Igbo tribe despite his father, Unoka, having a reputation for being a coward and a wastrel. It is growing up with the shame of such a father that causes Okonkwo to strive so hard to distance himself from Unoka as much as he can. In the Igbo tradition a man is “judged according to his worth and not according to worth of his father” (Achebe, pg. 8) and this allows Okonkwo to gain status through hard work and aggression.
While this process took many years, there are landmark events that can reveal how Okonkwo’s ways would eventually push the boy away. A clear example of this divide is after Okonkwo, against the advice of kinsmen and elders, takes part in the killing of Ikemefuna. Ikemefuna’s death was a great blow to all in the clan and family, but affected Nwoye the most. He was described as “something seemed to give way inside him, like the snapping of a tight bow. He did not cry.
For example, Okonkwo a once respected and influential man ended up hanging himself. This is ironic due to the fact that in the beginning of the novel Okonkwo said, “Since I survived that year, I shall survive anything.” (talking about the year of bad crops). Obviously he was wrong about that considering he ended his own life at the end of the novel showing that in fact he could not survive anything, including the falling of the Ibo clan and his realization of being alone in his wish for war with the white missionaries and government. Likewise, Okonkwo never wanting to replicate his father, which he spent his whole life trying to prove, ended up being buried in the Evil Forest, the exact place his father was sent when he died. When things became rough for Okonkwo he decided to give up on life, which is something his father may have done.