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In the novel, “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo is characterized as a regarded and decided person whose deadly imperfection in the long run conflicts with him. All through the novel the readers are demonstrated that Okonkwo has a considerable amount of these characteristics since he is fixated on not ending up simply like his dad. This turns into his imperfection in the novel that places him into outcast and makes it difficult for him to acclimate to the progressions that were made within his town.
Okonkwo changes from being a strong warrior who is beyond any doubt, to a weak hopeless man who feels his group won't support his decision to make war against the white evangelists. At the point where the structure of Umuofia changed, as occurs in the society, Okonkwo was unable to adjust his techniques for self-evaluation and methods of working in the world; the life he was resolved to live couldn't survive another condition and crumbled around him.
In the beginning of the novel, Okonkwo is known as a man with a searing temper.
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“ Amazing as always, gave her a week to finish a big assignment and came through way ahead of time. ”
He looks wild and is prepared to jump on any individual who gets in his direction. As the novel said, 'Without further argument Okonkwo gave her a sound beating and left her and her only daughter weeping.' (Page 38), he runs his family with an iron clench hand, and he beats his spouses and kids when he feels that they step out of line. He is fierce in his warrior demeanor.
He is a persevering man who can't rest amid times of celebrations. He needed to demonstrate to the people of his village that he was nothing liked his dad. Okonkwo’s dad was a poor, apathetic, man whom he didn't regard by any means, and neither did any of the people of Umuofia. Achebe wrote, “His fame rested on solid personal achievements.”(Page 3).
Okonkwo earned his own honor through being a clansman, becoming a wrestler, having multiple, wives, and owning many yam farms which meant wealth. Okonkwo feared being Like his father and wanted nothing to do with what his father represented, which led Okonkwo to do his best to become the most masculine, confident, violent warrior in Umuofia— but owning those traits also made Okonkwo believe that a respected man can show only those traits and nothing else.Okonkwo's seven-year banish from his tribe only reinforced his suspected that men are more grounded than women. While in a condition of expulsion, he lived among the group of his country yet loathed the period entirely. The expulsion is his opportunity to interface with his female side and to perceive his maternal antecedents; be that as it may, he keeps exhorting himself that his maternal family are not as warlike and angry as he reviews the villagers of Umuofia to be. He reprimands them for their slant of exchange, consistency, and avoiding over shock and butchery.
In Okonkwo's understanding, his uncle Uchendu speaks to this radical (and in this manner genuinely ladylike) mode. Okonkwo is stuck in his little piece of the world, and can't perceive some other purposes of perspectives other than his, and never comprehended the genuine motive behind his outcast from the town.The issue for Okonkwo is that he can't change and that is the thing that expedites his annihilation. Okonkwo grew up being humiliated by his dad who was not viewed as a fruitful man in Igbo society. He was more intrigued by playing music than being an effective agriculturist and he had earned no titles. Okonkwo is embarrassed about his father and spends as long as he can remember endeavoring to satisfy the picture of a fruitful man in his culture. Notwithstanding when he is compelled to go to Mbanta to take in more 'female' ideals, he sticks to his picture of what a 'genuine man' ought to be. Okonkwo’s views of what a respected man were: '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.' (Page 53).
Okonkwo could never change his views of men and the roles they need to own to be considered an honorable man: and as society progressed, his outlook on culture, gender roles, religion, and the society in general did not. When he comes back to his home, and the way of life has changed because of the coming of the missionaries, Okonkwo can't change his picture of masculinity, keeping in mind the end goal to make due in the new society. Chinua Achebe wrote,“The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.”(page 176).
Okonkwo believed that the missionaries were only there to take way their culture and ruin all the beliefs and traditions that their society stood for, and he never gave them a chance to try to introduce modern influences for the Igbo society to progress just like the other societies around them. Except, Okonkwo could not accept change, and allowed the missionaries to get in his head, weaken him, and inevitably, is headed to kill and then suicide in light of the fact that he can't change to the new environment brought by the white men.In conclusion, Okonkwo’s last demonstration of suicide is a definitive exhibit of “Things Fall Apart” since it is the first and last time that Okonkwo intentionally and calculatedly violates the village laws and things quite literally “fall apart.”
As a character, Okonkwo stays truly steady all through the book. There is no sudden changes in conduct or attitude— until the very end, where he loses his hope and let’s weakness, something he is so against of overpower him and take control over his body, mind, and actions. Okonkwo, whose feeling of pride and poise proceeds until the end, decides to live and die on individual terms instead of submitting to the missionaries. For Okonkwo, giving in would be against such an extensive amount of what he has remained for – mettle, convention, and masculinity.Works CitedAchebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. Anchor Books, 1959.
Okonkwo from Things Fall Apart. (2022, Feb 10). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/okonkwo-from-things-fall-apart-essay
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