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Julia Camp

Mary Wood

English

10 January 2017

The Okonkwo Men

The Okonkwos are all special and carry some of their own traits. The Okonkwo men are

Unoka, the eldest, Okonkwo, Nwoye, and Obi. These characters are important in the books

Things Fall Apart and No Longer at Ease. A lot of their traits played a big part in their lives.

Their religion affects their morals, their industriousness lets them be where they are in life, their

ways of parenting affect the child they have and all of their traits, their passion influences their

choices, and their ways of handling anger could be productive or destructive. No matter how

small these traits may seem, they all made up a person and how they made their decisions. The

Okonkwo men had a mix of traits passed down and a mix of who gets it passed down.

One impacting trait that takes part in their lives is religion. All of their morals were based

on it. Unoka, the eldest Okonkwo, was involved in the religion. He was not , though. Okonkwo

favored his religion, the one that belonged to their culture.. He did not want anything more or

anything less; he was very stubborn. He despised any other religion because he thought all of the

other religions were false. Nwoye turned round to walk into the inner compound when his

father, suddenly overcome with fury, sprang to his feet and gripped him by his neck. Where

have you been? he stammered. Nwoye struggled to free himself from the choking grip. Answer

me, roared Okonkwo, before I kill you! He seized a heavy stick that lay on the dwarf wall and

hit him two or three savage blows (Things Fall Apart 151-152). If someone were to have their

entire life built around one thing, that thing would be very special. Okonkwo would not convert
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his religion to anothers. He could not be convinced, not even by his first son, Nwoye. Nwoye

began to love christianity as a child when it was introduced to him. He abandoned Okonkwo for

his religion, even though Okonkwo threatened him. Nwoye just had left church and showed up

into the late afternoon. He stood up for what he believed in and typically, people do not stand up

for things they do not believe in too strongly. The fact that he did not back down shows that he

thought Christianity was something worth fighting for. Nwoye even later changed his name to

Isaac, a christian name. Obi was not religious it all. He was not an atheist either, he was a

humanist (someone who does not believe in a greater power and they merely depend on their

own intelligence). All of these religions, and how much they believed in it, made a big impact in

their life. Nwoye made choices based on christianity. If he never worshipped it, then where

would he be?

Another characteristic that impacts their life is their industriousness. How hard they work

determines where they will be in life. When Unoka died he had taken no title at all and he was

heavily in debt (Things Fall Apart 8). Unoka was not very industrious and that caused him to be

a failure when he got older. He would make little to no money and then he would have to

borrow money from friends/neighbors. He became very heavy in debt and left nothing for

Okonkwo. Okonkwo was very hardworking. He worked his way from the bottom to the top. He

became a famous wrestler that made a lot of money and had a big family. Everyone knew him

and respected him. In Things Fall Apart, it says, He had no patience with unsuccessful men

(Things Fall Apart 4). His first son was Nwoye, who reminded him of his father. Okonkwo

believed he was lazy and would be a failure like his father. Nwoye was a bit lazy, but he was not

too lazy. He worked when he needed to but did not do anything else. Obi never seemed like he

needed to work at first. He was at the top of his class, so everything must have come somewhat
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easily toward him. Later in life, though, he struggled and tried his best to get out of debt. He was

smart, but made bad financial choices. He just gave up, eventually. Everyones industriousness

chooses how far they go. If they do not work hard they will be a failure. If they do work hard,

they will most likely be successful. This played a significant role in their life.

The way that the Okonkwo men parented did not affect themselves, but it affected their

children. Unoka, the grown-up, was a failure. He was poor and his wife and children barely had

enough to eat (Things Fall Apart 5). Unoka loved Okonkwo and the rest of his children, but he

did not provide nearly enough for them. Since he was a failure, this made Okonkwo think that he

has to do everything opposite of him to become a success. Okonkwo hated love and laziness, so

he had to be hardworking and show no compassion or soft spots. His passion was to not show

any weakness. When Ikefuna started to live under Okonkwos compound, Okonkwo was rough

on him, as he was to the rest of his children, but he picked Ikefuna as his favorite because he was

manly. Nwoye saw that and worked to be manly and try to get into his fathers favor again.

However, Okonkwo ended up killing Ikemefuna, whom Nwoye thought of as a brother, and this

damaged Nwoye. He ended up hating his father for it. Nwoye needed to find compassion

somewhere else. He chose finding it in a new religion and books. He ended up abandoning

Okonkwo; Nwoye became very loving, but very frustrated towards Okonkwo. He then taught

Obi through Christian-guided ways, but he ended up being a bit of a hypocrite. He would say he

fully believed in christianity, but then when Obi got a girlfriend that was an Osu (outcast),

Nwoye got upset about it; it was hard for Obi to understand why. Also, since Nwoye had a

passion for books and reading, this influenced Obi to be interested in poetry, Nyowe introduced

him to the English language and the beauty of all of it. This persuaded Obi to study english
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instead of law. This is a subtle way that Nwoye effected Obi, but is a way, nevertheless. Unoka,

Okonkwo, Nwoye, and Obi affected each other greatly in small ways.

Another impacting difference they all had was their passions. Unoka loved music. He

played his flute all of the time; when he died, he was thrown in a forest with his flute when he

was sick. Musicians, however, tend to not make a lot of money. When Unoka died he had no

title at all and he was heavily in debt (Things Fall Apart 8). Musicians, unless famous, struggle

to earn their keep. The occupation musician is not even considered a job. It was considered a

hobby at that time. This affected him in the way that he did not earn enough money and was

considered a failure. Okonkwos passion was fighting. He was a famous wrestler, which helped

him earn a lot of money. However, this made him become violent and it impacted his personality.

He had other aspects of his personality that made him violent, too, but wrestling was one of

them. Another one could be the hatred for his fathers habits (laziness and unsuccessfulness).

Nwoyes passion was reading and books. He loved listening to his mother tell folktales. Obis

passion was poetry. This affected him by his heart telling him to take classes in english instead of

law. He could be in a different place right now. He could have taken law and become a lawyer,

helped everyone in his hometown, no one would be upset with him, etc. A lot of different things

could have happened. All of their passions had an impact on their lives, whether it was subtle or

not.

All of them had characteristics that impacted their lives, but that is what makes a person a

person. Their traits were a mix of either good or bad. Unoka was loving, which was great. That

meant his children knew they were loved and so did everyone else around him. However, he was

lazy and did not provide enough, which is bad. Okonkwo was hard working, which let him be

successful in life. Then again, he had more poor qualities than good. He was strict, angry, and
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violent most of the time. He thought showing any sign of compassion or love would show

weakness, so he never did. His friend, Obierika, could tell and looked beyond that and gave him

advice, but everyone else just thought he was bad, mostly. Nwoye was loving, and he tried to see

the best in people. On the other hand, he was a bit of a hypocrite when it came to him parenting.

Obi was hard working, like Okonkwo (but not nearly as much), and he wants to help the people

that are close to him. When he got a well paying job, he knew his retired parents did not get a

whole lot of money so he gave them some. He also payed for his brothers tuition. Still, he was

seen as selfish when he chose to study english rather than law because him studying english did

not help his people as much as law would have helped. All of these special aspects of the

Okonkwos make them themselves. All of it impacted their life in many significant ways.
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Works Cited:

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Anchor, 1994. Print.
Achebe, Chinua. No Longer At Ease. New York: Anchor, 1994. Print.
Osei-Nyame, Kwadwo. Chinua Achebe Writing Culture: Representations of

Gender and Tradition in Things Fall Apart. Research in African Literatures, 30, no. 2