Okonkwo Character Analysis

Okonkwo being the protagonist of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, holds large significance throughout the story. Achebe begins the book by introducing Okonkwo as a strong, well-earned man in Umoafia, and immediately introducing us to his lazy father and how his incompetence drove Okonkwo to the man he is. Achebe does this to immediately create the tragic flaw of Okonkwo, the fear of being anything like his father. From this the reader can see that Okonkwo represents masculinity, everything his father wasn’t Throughout the story we see that this through Okonkwo representing everything masculine and resenting anything that is related to his father or I his terms feminine. Similarly, throughout the story Okonkwo is stated to be like the “roaring fire”, which is seen as being symbolic of everything masculine. It is apparent that Okonkwo is the embodiment of masculinity throughout the entire story without any shift to his character until his tragic ending. The purpose of this significance was for Achebe to use the tragic hero archetype on Okonkwo, in order to get across an important message to the reader. Okonkwo’s extreme masculinity is present throughout the entirety of the story by Achebe. The reader is constantly shown how Okonkwo attempts to uphold his principles of masculinity throughout his life. He beats his wives to assert his dominance over them, he kills the adopted son he loved in order to show he was still the masculine man everyone saw him as, He beat and disowned his son for being too weak and feminine, and lastly he killed the Christian messenger. Achebe purposely makes these actions by Okonkwo brutal, so that as naturally from the point of view of the reader, we almost resent Okonkwo having a negative perspective of him in general. This links to his overall downfall, as in keeping his masculine principle his eventual actions causes him to hang himself to avoid the imminent consequences that he would face for upholding those principles, exemplifying the irony of Okonkwo dying a death like the man he resented the most, his father. The message Achebe intends to get across is the dangers of hyper masculinity and how holding onto flawed principles or any principles without the fluidity to change will destroy a person. The other significance Okonkwo has in the story is his representation of the Igbo culture and people throughout the story. Okonkwo is a representation of a man who is devoted to his culture’s values and practices. Throughout the story we can see the values and believes of the Igbo people through Okonkwo. The purpose of this being Achebe’s way of exploring the strengths and flaws that the Igbo culture has. Throughout the story Achebe is exploring and coming to terms with his dual identity of being part of the Igbo and Christian culture. As a result, he uses Okonkwo to explore the Igbo culture, while also expressing the conflict between the Igbo and Christian through Okonkwo’s interactions with the missionaries. The Igbo culture through Okonkwo is presented with strengths of being a heavily collective society, having remembrance of their ancestors and history, and most importantly a civilized culture. On the contrary through Okonkwo Achebe highlights the flaws in the Igbo culture, such as: The treatment of Igbo women, the killing of twins, the over importance of titles, and the killing/sacrifices of the innocent. Achebe is able to successfully explore the Igbo culture in way that lays out the strengths and flaws without outwardly criticizing it, but rather leaving it for the reader to make their judgement. Overall this connects to the overall ideas of religion and culture throughout things fall apart.