Is Okonkwo Sympathetic
Whether okonkwo is threatening his son to work or feeling ashamed of his father, the man is portrayed being an unsympathetic character to the eye from his beatings and cockiness, but people hardly look past that to view it from another perspective. Okonkwo is actually a sympathetic character if people would consider how he treats his son do to the fear his father put into him. His past transformed him to be hard working and teach his own children the value of setting their own title even though it is not in put perfectly on the table. Okonkwo treats his father unoka very differently from his own son. “When unoka died he had taken no title at all and he was heavily in debt. Any wonder then that his son okonkwo was ashamed of him”. His father …show more content…
“But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness”. Due to his father’s lack of work he pushed himself farther and is now pushing his own son nwoye. “Okonkwo’s first son, nwoye, was then twelve years old but was already causing his father anxiety for his incipient laziness”. In result of nwoye being lazy okonkwo threatens him to work, not only does he apply it to his first son but the rest of his family to the point where they are scared of his temper. Okonkwo wants his son to be successful and has hopes for him. In the way that he treats his son and unoka the same is through ‘bad’ intentions of anger. With his fear of weakness and failure he puts that into his son but with anger and threats. “Unoka loved the good fare and fellowship”. His father is a man of good and, since he despises everything his father loves and stands for, okonkwo uses anger to teach his son a lesson. If unoka was a man of fists and anger, along with okonkwo hating what his father stands for then perhaps the out would have been different. Perhaps okonkwo would be an actual good person and not abusive towards his family. In the end it shows that okonkwo is actually a sympathetic character. He just uses his fists to get his point a cros than actual words some just don 't see it and think he is an unsympathetic character. His past is part of the outcome of his behavior but would have been different if his father had his
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