Okonkwo


Okonkwo’s character is the main protagonist of the novel, Things Fall Apart. He is a character that despise any signs of weaknesses or feminine characteristics displayed, especially by a man. When his Ibo village decides to not go to war with the Christians, he was gravely disappointed and defined his people as weak and cowards like women. His hyper masculinity was one of his flaws that prevented this hero to end up being a tragic hero.
Okonkwo’s character serves to be as a person who’s blind to new ideas and sticks to his routine. He doesn’t see the grey area in life but only sees the extremity of black and white. He’s not open- minded and doesn’t like the imbalance caused in his village by the colonizers. Even at this point, he wanted to wage war against them like they would usually do in order to display their masculinity and manliness but he was disappointed when this did not happen. He believed that the people had become too soft and that his chi isn’t supporting him even though he wills. By bringing in Okonkwo, we see many people who are condemned with their traditional practices and customs that first of all, they fear breaking the order of their clan and secondly, their religious beliefs would be criticized for their past deeds and this, can form guilt amongst the society members. This guilt can be formed from past doings such as abandoning twin babies in the Evil Forest, just to know that in the end that it was all for nothing just because of their village traditions. Okonkwo is a representation of the blind beliefs and faith installed within religions and social groups that create extremists and stubborn members. Furthermore, Okonkwo is a character that supports and at the same time, goes against his own Ibo culture. This can be noticed since he is a physically strong and bold, manly character like most of the men would be at that time, but on the other hand, he doesn’t tranquilize between females and males in the society. His concept and ideology is based on the dominance over women and that they shouldn’t be valued so much in society. They are simply materialistic, in order to satisfy the needs of the men, children and the household. They should be condemned to their status (low) and shouldn’t be encouraged to grow any further than that. This can be seen when he refutes Chielo (Priestess of Agbala) from taking his daughter Enzinma away to the caves, even though he knows Chielo’s powers and connection to the Gods. This shows his disregard to the Igbo society’s religious beliefs as well although he does to an extent, follow by them for his success. Okonkwo’s character is confusing in general as he abides by the rules sternly but also at the same time, is a man of his own opinions, disrupting societal conventions.



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