Okonkwo Literary Criticism

Things Fall Apart Literary Analysis Example Nwoye, a child the readers got to see grow throughout the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, was changed drastically by the Christians that came and colonized Africa. Nwoye was not considered masculine by his father Okonkwo and because of the Christians he becomes independent and he finds a new home within the Christian community to get away from his family. This challenged Okonkwo because Okonkwo wanted Nwoye to become like him. Nwoye shows readers how children will not always be like their parents and they will not always go down the path that they are expected to go down.

Nwoye is nothing at all like his father. Instead Nwoye is very much like his grandfather, Unoka. Unoka was a debtor who was lazy and only lived to play his flute. This is what helped fuel Okonkwo to become successful, his fear of being like his father. Nwoye did not have this motivation. Nwoye was considered feminine and lazy, even other villagers noticed Nwoye’s similarities to Unoka. “’Too much of his grandfather,’ Obierika thought, but he did not say it. The same thought also came to Okonkwo’s mind” (Achebe 66). Okonkwo fears that Nwoye will be like his father. This makes him even harder on Nwoye when he is not acting the way he wants him too. Okonkwo wants Nwoye to be like him, but their characteristics are not at all similar. Okonkwo is angry and masculine, and Nwoye is still a child that loves his mother’s bedtime stories. He did not want to be