What does Okonkwo say about his father?

In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe Okonkwo’s relationship with his father affects all of his actions. In his childhood, Okonkwo was exposed to ignominy because his father, Unoka, was not respected by the rest of Umuofia, the village they lived in. In adulthood, Okonkwo’s shame grows with him and with the shame comes a fear of being like his father. He spends his whole life avoiding acting like his father and ultimately fails in his death. Okonkwo became ashamed of his father in childhood and this shame affected his behaviour throughout his life and ultimately lead to him dying in similar circumstances to his father. Okonkwo’s views on masculinity are greatly affected by how he perceived his father, Unoka, to be. Unoka was a happy and relaxed man but as a result of this he was not accomplished or hard-working. Unoka’s “happiest moments were [...] when the village musicians brought down their instruments, hung about the…show more content…
As Unoka’s is deteriorating he told Okonkwo, “You have a manly and a proud heart. A proud heart can survive a general failure because such a failure does not prick its pride. It is more difficult and bitter when a man fails alone.(3.36-37)” Unoka was speaking from his own experience, as he was later taken to the Evil Forest to die. Ironically, despite all of Okonkwo’s efforts throughout his life to be different from his father, he fails alone and dies in similar circumstances to Unoka. A few days before, Okonkwo had told himself “If they listen to him, I shall leave and plan my own revenge. (24.15)” and the following day “he knew that Umuofia would not go to war. He knew because they had let the other messenger escape. (24.35)” Okonkwo realizes that he is alone, and then goes to kill himself the next day. Only at the end of his life does he realize he has become similar to his father in his efforts to do the opposite and that is his final

How does okonkwo’s family relationships change his life, and how does it make him the person he is now? In what ways does this make him sympathetic and/or unsympathetic? I dictated this based off his relationships with both his father Unoka, and his wife Ekwefi. And deciding how the way he treated them affected him and his sympathy?
First, his relationship with his father Unoka. Who he did not have a great relationship with. And someone he did not specifically care for. Someone he knew who just so happen to be his father. In the book there is a quote “okonkwo was ruled by one passion- to hate everything his father had loved”. Basically stating that he dislike his father in every single way. No matter what the subject was he didn’t like him.…show more content…
But in my eyes Okonkwo was made to hate people, whether it being Ekwefi or Unoka. But there is ways there treatment was different, Ekwefi was his wife who he tried to basically kill. And shoot. As oppose to his father who he didn’t like because of whatever reasons he had. This info gives me all the clues to say yes Okonkwo was sympathetic if you look at the patterns. His father Unoka was quoted “in his day was lazy and improvident and was quite incapable of thinking about tomorrow”. Basically saying he didn’t care about his life, so in what possible way could he have cared for Okonkwo’s. And his wife Ekwefi he didn’t technically shoot. He didn’t kill so there might have been sympathy there because she was completely defenseless and didn’t die so you can tell he intentionally didn’t kill her.
In conclusion, i believe Okonkwo is a sympathetic man and he cares about the people around deeply. He may just have a hard way of showing it. Whether he beats his family, tries to kill them, abuses them. Nobody he has touched hasn’t died. So you can look at it that way and say he cares. So in my opinion Okonkwo is a sympathetic

Okonkwo's thoughts and actions convey his motivation to become nothing like his father. Okonkwo's whole being is to be everything his father wasn't and hate everything hid father loved (Unoka is the name of Okonkwo's father). “Unoka, the grown-up, was a failure”. Okonkwo whom wanted to be nothing like his father despited any man that was a failure and had no titles, he would try to belittle whomever snd kill their spirit. “Without looking at the man Okonkwo had said: “ This meeting is for men.” The man who had contradicted him had no titles. That's was why he had called him a women. Okonkwo knew how to kill a mans spirit.” Okonkwo was nothing like his father, he was a highly respected man. “Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and…show more content…
“His whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness. It was deeper and more intimate then the fear of evil and capricious gods and of magic, the fear of forest, snd of the forces of nature, malevolent, red in the tooth and claw. Okonkwo's fear was greater than these. It was external but lay deep within himself. It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father.” Okonkwo tortures himself into being a dominating man, mortified by being anything like Unoka ( his father). “Down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and weakness.” Perhaps Okonkwo is so angry and dominate, because he could never truly learn to love himself. Due tot he fact he could never really love his father or anything his father loved. Since Okonkwo doesn't show emotion (weakness) he has no other way of representing/upholding himself, so he is aggressive. By doing so Chinua Achebe sets the whole theme of the novel, of how okonkwo has a fight within himself to become a man he thought he would never be. Yet now that he is this man, he must keep the traits he has aquired over the years to remain the man and person he has

When he walked, his heels hardly touched the ground and he seemed to walk on springs, as if he was going to pounce on somebody. And he did pounce on people quite often.

In Chapter 1, the narrator describes Okonkwo as a physically intimidating man who exhibits a generally aggressive personality. Well-known for his wrestling prowess, Okonkwo seems to threaten attack even while walking. This quote offers one of the first suggestions that Okonkwo’s violent tendencies border on being socially inappropriate.

Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness. It was deeper and more intimate than the fear of evil and capricious gods and of magic, the fear of the forest, and of the forces of nature, malevolent, red in tooth and claw. Okonkwo’s fear was greater than these. It was not external but lay deep within himself. It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father.

In Chapter 2, the narrator speculates on the deep-seated motive behind Okonkwo’s violent tendencies. Okonkwo acts from a place of fear, but his fear doesn’t resemble the prevalent terrors of his clan, which relate to the supernatural world. Instead, Okonkwo suffers from the existential fear that he will not succeed in life and thus end up like his unremarkable father. Okonkwo’s existential fear plays a major thematic role in Things Fall Apart, since it drives Okonkwo to perform several acts of tremendous violence.

[Okonkwo] walked back to his obi to await Ojiugo’s return. And when she returned he beat her very heavily. In his anger he had forgotten that it was the Week of Peace. His first two wives ran out in great alarm pleading with him that it was the sacred week. But Okonkwo was not the man to stop beating somebody half-way through, not even for fear of a goddess.

Here Okonkwo beats Ojiugo for failing to cook his evening meal, losing himself so thoroughly in anger that he refuses to stop even when reminded that such violence breaks the peace of the sacred week. The idea that Okonkwo does not fear divine wrath for his transgression is ironic, given that he’s otherwise so committed to Igbo religion. Such an irony marks an important rift between Okonkwo’s commitment to his clan and his commitment to his own power.

Somehow Okonkwo could never become as enthusiastic over feasts as most people. He was a good eater and he could drink one or two fairly big gourds of palm-wine. But he was always uncomfortable sitting around for days waiting for a feast or getting over it. He would be very much happier working on his farm.

Whereas “most people” feel enthusiastic about feast celebrations and enjoy the festivities in the company of others, Okonkwo feels driven to go back to working alone in the fields. This passage in Chapter 5 reaffirms Okonkwo’s aversion to idleness and how he never wants to appear weak or ineffectual.

As the man who had cleared his throat drew up and raised his machete, Okonkwo looked away. He heard the blow. The pot fell and broke in the sand. He heard Ikemefuna cry, “My father, they have killed me!” as he ran towards him. Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak.

This passage from Chapter 7 narrates Okonkwo’s execution of Ikemefuna. This scene represents a tragic culmination of two contrasting emotions in Okonkwo. Okonkwo has grown to love Ikemefuna like a son, but this love amplifies Okonkwo’s fear of being considered weak. In the end his fear wins out. Okonkwo’s act also has significant implications for his future. Not only does the event mark a break in Okonkwo’s relationship with his son Nwoye, who loved Ikemefuna, but the execution represents yet another instance when Okonkwo goes against the wisdom of the clan.

“I do not know how to thank you.”

This dialogue concludes Chapter 15 and marks a rare moment of humor in the novel. When his good friend Obierika visits during his exile in Mbanta and brings him news of Umuofia, Okonkwo feels thankful and wants to express his gratitude. Obierika introduces an element of dark humor in response, which gives both men something to laugh about in an otherwise difficult time. However, the joke Obierika makes about Okonkwo killing himself foreshadows Okonkwo’s tragic end. This moment of levity bears great symbolic weight.

Okonkwo felt a cold shudder run through him at the terrible prospect, like the prospect of annihilation. He saw himself and his fathers crowding round their ancestral shrine waiting in vain for worship and sacrifice and finding nothing but ashes of bygone days, and his children the while praying to the white man’s god.

In Chapter 17 Okonkwo learns that Nwoye has converted to Christianity, the white men’s religion. Initially enraged, Okonkwo’s thoughts turn fearful as he imagines his clan’s “annihilation” should all of Umuofia’s sons forget their heritage. Okonkwo imagines himself in the afterlife among his forefathers, waiting in vain for his still-living sons to pay tribute to their ancestors. Okonkwo’s anxious vision of a meager afterlife helps explain the depth of his existential fear: the annihilation of the clan means that Okonkwo will be completely abandoned in death.

“Let us not reason like cowards,” said Okonkwo. “If a man comes into my hut and defecates on the floor, what do I do? Do I shut my eyes? No! I take a stick and break his head. That is what a man does.”

In Chapter 18 Okonkwo responds to other clansmen who say that Umuofia has never fought on behalf of its gods and shouldn’t do so now. Okonkwo argues that the white men pose an existential threat that could contaminate Umuofia’s entire way of life. To make his point, Okonkwo likens Umuofia’s situation to one in which a man bursts into another man’s hut and contaminates the space. The only appropriate response to such an act is retaliation. However, Okonkwo doesn’t convince the others to take a strong stand, and the longstanding difference in opinion between him and his fellow clansmen remains intact.

If Umuofia decided on war, all would be well. But if they chose to be cowards he would go out and avenge himself. He thought about wars in the past. The noblest, he thought, was the war against Isike. In those days Okudo was still alive. Okudo sang a war song in a way that no other man could. He was not a fighter, but his voice turned every man into a lion.

After Okonkwo gets released from the white men’s jail in Chapter 24, he commits himself to taking vengeance—even if the rest of the clan lacks the courage to do so. As he sits alone planning, Okonkwo’s thoughts retreat to times past, when Umuofia was at its height and its warriors could be easily stirred into action. Okonkwo’s reliance on idealized images of the past may suggest that, unlike his fellow clansmen, he has failed to reckon with the newness of Umuofia’s current problems. This failure of adaptation will have tragic consequences for Okonkwo.