Monday, September 17, 2007
Okonkwo is . . .
As we read and analyze Achebe's vibrant work, we need to look closely at the main character, Okonkwo, and start to understand him and talk about him as a complex and sometimes contradictory individual. For this posting, I'd like you to write a short paragraph (6-8 sentences) describing Okonkwo's emotional and physical strengths and weaknesses. Use evidence from the text to support your response! Due Thursday, September 20, at the start of class.
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Okonkwo has physical strength such as being a great and famous wrestler. All the people in Ibo are aware of his strengths. For example on page four “He breathed heavily, and it was said that, when he slept, his wife’s and children in their houses could hear him breath. When he walked, his heel hardly touched the ground and he seemed to walk on springs, as if he was to pounce on somebody.” Some though aren’t aware that he isn’t the toughest guy mentally. Various times in the reading Okonkwo has been emotional or having emotion and hasn’t shown it because he doesn’t think it is masculine.
In TFA, Okonkwo is a contradictory person for he is so powerful outwardly but so weak inside his heart. To everyone who reads TFA, the first impression of Okonkwo is his physical strength. As it says in the book, “He was tall and huge, and his bushy eyebrows and wide nose gave him a very severe look.”(3), he has got a solid looking and plus he is a legend in his village because of his wrestling achievement. However, like what we say to some ordinary people with great talent, he doesn’t have a great heart. He is impatient and impulsive; he says “I will not have a son who cannot hold up his head in the gathering of the clan. I would sooner strangle him with my own hands” (33) to one of his kid only because he is too young and impotent to cut yams for the family. He is an extreme inward person; he never shows his fondness to his children; he expects all his kids to be as good as him; he even wished his daughter was a boy. Finally, he has been living in his father’s shadow for the whole life. Because of his father’s bad reputation in the clan, he tried really hard to be the opposite of his father. But in the end, even though he has a better life and reputation, he is still extremely weak inside.
Okonkwo is…
Okonkwo is a shallow man who is more concerned with his reputation than anything else. His reputation is very important to him because it shows people that he is not like his Father and it establishes his authority in his tribe. It is shown in the book that Okonkwo would do anything to keep his reputation because of his actions on page 61. “He heard Ikemefuna cry, “My father, they have killed me!” as he ran towards him. Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought of being weak.” Page 61. Okonkwo is takes his reputation very seriously because it is what makes him a man in his tribe and it is what sets him apart from the other people in his tribe and his father.
Okonkwo is made out to be a mean, strict, and a tough guy but inside he really cares about his family and what happens to them. When Okonkwo says "When did you become a shivering old woman, you who are known in all nine villages for your valor in war? How can a man who has killed five men in battle fall to pieces because he has added a boy to their number," (pg. 65) it truly becomes apparent that he cares about what happened to Ikemefuna. It shows that he became to care for Ikemefuna as one of his own. He did not consider him a child that he got stuck anymore, but he considered him his son. Even though Okonkwo is clearly upset, he does not want anyone to know about it. People thinking of him as “soft” would effect his reputation. He needs to act strong despite his actual feelings.
Shawn Bennett
Okonkwo is a very confusing caracter. He a very stong man physically but emotionally i feel that he is very weak. He is a successful man who never wants to be seen as weak because he is afraid of loosing his masculinity. In the forest when they are about to kill the "given child" it says "As the man who cleared his throat drew his machete, Okonkwo looked away. He heard the the blow. The pot fell and broke in the sand. He heard Ikemefuna cry,"My father they have killed me!" as he ran towards him. Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his machere and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought of as weak."(page 61) I feel that this quote explains that he will do anything to keep his masculinity.
Okonkwo is a very big, athletic, selfish man. He cares more about his reputation and himself more than anything or anyone else. He gets so caught up in himself he beats his wife on peace week. Okonkwo doesn’t think of the consequences of his actions. I feel he has a cold, empty heart because he takes things for granted and doesn’t realize the good things in his life.He puts to much energy into his reputation and himself. Okonkwo may look tough on the outside but inside I think he is very weak and insecure. He may be the big man on campus but sometimes there the weakest.
In TFA our main character Okonkwo is physically strong and a brave worrior. On the flip side he is emotionally weak and "...his whole life [is] dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness" (p.13). Okonkwo is "...not afraid of war. He [is] a man of action, a man of war" (p.16). There was never a time when he would pass up on the fighting to bring a head home and have others look up to him. Inside though Okonkwo is so afraid of being like his father and he is constantly putting up a face that puts others in fear so as to protect himelf. The worrior that everyone sees on the outside is like a protective sheild so that no one can see that Okonkwo is lost inside of his mixed up feelings of fear and wanting to be better then his father.
--Charlotte M.
Okonkwo has a blazing appearance, and he fears in the hearts of his clan member as well as his own family unit. He is a successful man who has yams, two titles and three wives. However, he is impatient and arrogant. He always does things without think about the consequences. Moreover, when people in Unmuofia are planning to have a meeting for the ancestral feast, Okonkwo says “this meeting is for men” (26), but the man who had contradicted him had no titles. This quote shows that Okonkwo is haughty. Also, he cannot express his feeling. The reason why there are some negative effects on Okonkwo after Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna is that Okonkwo does not know how to express his feeling.
The main character of Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo, is described as physically strong man. In fact, he can be called the man who is perfect in biological terms. The Chinua Achebe writes, “As a young man of eighteen he had brought honor to his village by throwing Amalinze the Cat” (ch.1, p.3). In the quotation, the word “throwing” means the skill in wrestling that indicates the user’s greatness in it.
Despite of his great physical strength, Okonkwo lacks the mental strength. One can assume that this weakness is the result of the man’s gloomy childhood. When he was a boy, his father Unoka, failed to be a good father-like figure. In the book, “He was poor and his wife and children had barely enough to eat.” (ch.1, p.5). Here, ‘he’ is Unoka and it is not difficult for readers to see why Okonkwo fears to be similar to his father. I think this fear is the weak part in Okonkwo’s mind, which stirs him to misjudgments.
okonkwo is a strong, healthy, powerfull, violent, and ridiculous man. he is so busy thinking that he is all that and trying everything in his power to not be like his dad, that it seems to me that he is becoming almost like his dad in a way. okonkwo has cirtain physical features that make him different from most men. he has a body builder type body and is very strong, but he doesnt put it to good use. also he could definatly put his so called "power" to good use if he really wanted to. he doesnt like to have fun because that is all his dad ever wanted to do and he doesnt like doing anything that will ruin his reputation. okonkwo shows little to no emotion because of the fact that he doesnt want anyone to find his weaknesses.
In his village, Okonkwo is a man of many titles who holds a high position, he has many great physical strengths but at the same time has equal as many emotional weaknesses. For one to say that Okonkwo is physically weak would be absurd and foolish, due to his strongly opposing thoughts and opinions of his father Unoko and his laziness, Okonkwo has developed the strength and stamina to do more and be more than the average man. Because Okonkwo developed such strong opinions about the working man and what does and doesn’t define a real man he has learned to shut out any and every kind of emotion or slight sense of sentiment thrown his way. For example when the oracle told the people of the village to kill Ikemefuna, the “lost boy” who had become like a son to Okonkwo, Okonkwo was asked by the village elders not to come and if he did, to stay back. But because Okonkwo was so concerned about losing face and looking weak, or having any sense of emotion he ignored the orders and proceeded to attend and help kill the helpless boy. “He heard Ikemefuna cry, ‘My father, they have killed me!’ as he ran towards him. Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak.” This passage explains how out of fear and lack of knowing how to respond to his emotions Okonkwo killed an innocent boy he considered one of his own, if not more. This passage shows how one can have the physical strength of 6 men but at the same time have the emotional strength of a 6 year old, because in some circumstances, great strength and weakness of emotions go hand-in-hand.
Okonkwo is and has been perceived as a strong independent man who is strong willed and fear is what he is a fraid of. known for his wrestling history and how strong he is. Though Okonkwo can be viewed as a warrior, he has a whole nother side to him which shows that he is sensitive and his masculinity fades. Emotionally, he almost seems weak but he tends too keeps his true feelings to himself. All of his emotions seemed to be based on his past and all of his physical strength on his future.
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