Okonkwo Sympathetic Character

Things Fall Apart tells the story of an African man named Okonkwo. His life is heavily affected by his interactions with his three wives and multiple children. However, it is most affected when a boy from a neighboring tribe, named Ikemefuna, is sent to live with him. Through Okonkwo’s interactions with Ikemefuna and the other members of his household, we learn how Okonkwo is seen and identified a sympathetic character. One of Okonkwo’s main goals for himself is to not be like his father. “His father was an agbala...not only a name for a woman, it could also mean a man who had taken no title...Okonkwo was ruled by one passion - to hate everything his father Unoka had loved.” Okonkwo lives in a village where titles and being harsh are seen

However, in her tribe, violence and anger is seen as “masculine” and “strong”. Beating his wives and children is something perfectly acceptable in his tribe. He “knew it was right to be masculine and violent...no matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children (especially his women) he was not really a man...down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man.” When someone spends their whole life being told they are invalid unless they act a certain way, it is not wholly their fault when they do things that go against what the modern, mostly Western world deems “right”. The modern moral code was not in effect in the village of Umoufia, so we cannot expect Okonkwo to adhere to it. By critically analyzing the characterization of Okonkwo offered in the first few chapters of Things Fall Apart, we can draw an obvious conclusion regarding Okonkwo’s characterization. Chinua Achebe’s masterful, eloquent style of writing draws subtle similarities between modern people and Okonkwo. By making Okonkwo more and more like someone we could possible know, we see how Okonkwo is a sympathetic