Things Fall Apart
Character sketch of ‘Okonkwo’ from the novel ‘Things Fall Apart’
The central character of the novel ‘Things Fall Apart’, Okonkwo is a typical tragic hero. He is a man of character but suffers from some flaws. These flaws lead to his fall. Okonkwo’s life is a tale of great achievements and huge misfortunes. The story of ‘Things Fall Apart’ is about Okonkwo’s past as well as his present life and how he finally ends his life, committing a suicide.
Okonkwo’s father Unoka was a weak and lazy man who died a shameful death under the debt of many people. Because of his father, Okonkwo is determined to achieve success in his life. He grows up into a “tall and huge” wrestler who is capable of defeating even the biggest and the toughest men. He is a fierce warrior and the village people develop an immense respect for him. He is a hard-working man and provides for his huge family of three wives and ten children.
Soon, Okonkwo becomes one of the wealthiest in the village. He is almost always afraid of being emotional as he considers that to be a feminine trait. He is strict with his family members and wants his eldest son Nwoye to grow into a strong man like himself. Okonkwo is always struggling between showing his emotions and remaining “manly”. He even restricts himself from showing any fatherly affection to Ikemefuna and Ezinma, who is Okonkwo’s favourite daughter.
Okonkwo was against any feminine qualities in men. He hated his father for being talented in music and conversation. He also keeps telling his son Nwoye to give up his interest in music because that will make him feminine. One of the reasons that Okonkwo became fond of his adopted son Ikemefuna was because he found the twelve-year-old boy to be brave. He wanted Nwoye to become like Ikemefuna.
Okonkwo was so against feminine qualities that he seldom thought his favourite daughter Ezinma should actually have been born as a boy. Unfortunately, his pride in masculinity leads him to commit massive errors. He beats his wives because he thinks he owns them as his male birthright. Even his exile happens because he has committed the “female” crime of inadvertently killing a clansman. He is thus punished by the earth goddess, as thought by the village people and is sent to exile.
Okonkwo’s downfall begins when he murders Ikemefuna. He had been warned by the elderly Ezeudo that he should not participate in Ikemefuna’s killing. But Okonkwo is so obsessed with his masculinity that he kills the boy to cover his fear of “being thought weak”. He suffers from guilt throughout the novel. But he does not show it to others. Even when he accidentally kills a tribesman and is put into exile, he doesn’t show any emotion of unhappiness.
Okonkwo was always “a man of action, a man of war”. But in the end, when he wants to fight against the missionaries to protect his clan from converting to Christianity, his people do not support him. Okonkwo could never understand that violence does not always mean strength. He undervalued the skill of conversation and lost to the missionaries because they were able to convert the people of Umuofia by talking to them about Christianity.
Okonkwo is physically strong but very impulsive. Most of his decisions are taken in anger or aggression. Okonkwo’s biggest motivation in life is to be the exact opposite of his father. But, eventually, when he commits suicide, he meets the same end as his father. The village people had rejected Unoka for being a disgrace to the community. Similarly, as suicide was against the tribe’s morals, the village people start considering Okonkwo a disgrace.
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