Okonkwo Character Analysis

    In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo is largely significant to the development of not only the story’s plot, but also the development of characters and the understandings in the story. In regards to the story’s plot, Okonkwo’s characterization is highly stubborn in terms of its ability to evolve and adapt. Okonkwo, through his stubbornness, hangs on to his culture’s values and traditions in his all-consuming fear of being seen as weak alike his unsuccessful and title-less father Unoka. His stubbornness to not change causes conflict between the people in his village, Umuofia, to a point where he is seen as extremely violent to his first son, Nyome; enough so to cause him to convert to Christianity when the British missionary arrives. As well, he is banished from the village for 7 years through his careless acts of violence such as beating one of his wives in the Week of Peace and killing the 16-year-old boy accidentally with his gun. This conflict leads to the village trying to fight off the British but, in the end, Okonkwo loses his followers and finds that he is alone in his fight. Due to his stubbornness, he did not put the safety of the village and its people first and caused the British to fight back through their self-imposed law to a point where the people were too fearful to want to fight the British. Okonkwo, at this realization, kills himself in despair. It is through this that Okonkwo symbolizes manliness, violence, loyalty and how he represents his culture.

    Okonkwo’s character is the embodiment of Umuofia’s cultures and values: protective, strong, loyal, violent, non-explanative and barbaric in its beliefs. Okonkwo, through being the embodiment of his village’s culture, has the purpose of showing how the culture and, in turn, the people of that culture live and struggle in their lifestyles. Okonkwo struggles with his confidence as he finds that everything he does must lead to success or that he will be seen as weak in both his mind and body to a point where he will be labeled and seen as someone alike his title-less and unsuccessful father, Unoka. This fear pushes him to become violent to women, who are title-less from birth as they are women, and to men and boys who are lazy, alike his first son Nyome. He is shown to be disappointed in his son until Ikemefuna, a boy from another village put under Okonkwo’s care, pushes Nyome to start working ‘men’s’ jobs and become more productive, to Okonkwo’s delight. Although, against the village elders’ advice, Okonkwo joins other men in his village when they take Ikemefuna to be killed as instructed by the Earth goddess. He gives the killing blow and returns to his life in the village to only be banished for 7 years a ‘womanly murder’. When he returns, he rises up against the British and their laws and religion: Christianity. In this, he is the embodiment of the Igbo culture fighting against the new-coming British and Christianity. Okonkwo begins to lose those around him to the British: his son, Nyome, to Chritianity, and his fellow tribes people to the British when they do not rise to fight with him. When he realizes that they have given up on the Igbo culture, Okonkwo commits suicide, a sin to the culture. This personifies the defeat of the Igbo culture by the British and betrayal of the Igbo people to their own culture. Through his story, Okonkwo contributes to big ideas, the first being that things, like cultures, change throughout the centuries through the evolution of technology, laws, beliefs and ideals. The second big idea is that colonization of nations and cultures, such as the Igbo culture, can cause the downfall of cultures and a people in violent ways that can cause the culture to be left behind or allow the culture to be destroyed from the foundations where the people of that culture destroy what is left of their past cultures. The third big idea being shown by Okonkwo’s character is that, for cultures to survive alongside other cultures, understandings must be shared and cultures must each adapt their images of other cultures. An example is where the British saw the villagers as brutes while Okonkwo and other men in the village saw the British as enemies.