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Ariel Solis

Professor Elizabeth Whitley

English 201

11 May 2012

                                    The Importance of Fatherhood: Okonkwo’s Life

In the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, there are many aspects that were touched in the novel that varied from religion, marriage, womanhood and fatherhood. The subject that struck out to me the most was fatherhood. Fatherhood is very important for the simple fact that everyone needs a good father. Even though, today in this society there are high rates of single mothers raising their children to their best of their ability, they can never replace the role of being a father. There are many aspects that men as fathers, can teach their children that women cannot teach the same. This has a lot to do with gender roles and it is essential that these roles get played properly.

            A good father is supposed to support and protect his family at all means necessary. He suppose to set the example of what is means to be a man to his son and what his daughter should look for in a husband. In the novel Thing Fall Apart the protagonist Okonkwo was considered as a strong man, well known man in his community. “The story is as much about Umuofia as it is about Okonkwo, the most conspicuous and active member of the society, whose attempt at confronting and resisting the force of change dramatizes the dynamics of anti-colonial resistance” (Okunoye 5).He had high titles his village and lived with his three wives and children. Although he had many accomplishments, he failed at one very important role which was being a good father. This had a lot to do with the relationship he had with his own father.

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“Unoka is an individual who was not considered a "person" or a grown-up in the moral sense because in spite of his old age, he had no socially recognizable achievements” (Ikuenobe 5). Unoka was Okonkwo father and grown up with a father like his made he want to strive for more and never to become like his father. “Okonkwo’s rise from poverty to wealth, and of failure, as in the protagonist’s downfall and his father’s unremarkable life” (Msiska 3). another text also states that, “The novel begins with a description of Unoka as lazy man, a debtor—someone who could not provide food for his family” (Ikuenobe6).  The Text goes on to state, “Not only did Unoka fail to acquire personhood or elder hood (community recognition), he also failed as a man, father, and husband in the normative sense of these terms. In African thought, being a "man" or "father" or "husband" is not just a descriptive reference to certain biological features or relationships—these terms have normative meanings and evaluative features attached to them, involving the ability to meet some requisite personal and communal obligations” (Ikuenobe6). This greatly affected the why Okonkwo would go on to treat his wife and children to never be considered a failure. With that being said, this proves that not only does a health relationship with your father affect you, but it also affects the people around you.

Okonkwo’s oldest son was named Nwoye, and he really wanted him to meet certain standards that would make him a “strong man” in his community. The author quotes, “I will not have a son who cannot hold his head up in the clan. I would sooner strangle him with my own hands” (33). “Okonkwo never wanted to be reminded about his father's bad qualities—laziness, being a debtor, having no title, being unable to provide for his family” (Ikuenobe7). This caused Okonkwo to be very abusive towards Nwoye because of this fear of failure. He felt like no son of

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his was going to fail and he would do anything and everything means necessary means necessary because of the struggles he had growing up. “When Okonkwo saw signs of laziness in his son,

Nwoye, he wanted to stamp it out” (Ikuenobe7). Chinua also mentioned “…Nwoye was then twelve years old but was already causing his father great anxiety for his incipient laziness. At any rate, that was how it looked to his father, and sought to correct him by constant nagging and beating. And so Nwoye was developing into a sad-faced youth” (Chinua 13). Okonkwo lacked many skills in being a good father. This all goes back to the lack of relationship he had with his own father and how he grew up never wanting to like him.

            In the novel Okonkwo bought a boy in to his family by the name of Ikemefuna. He treated him no different than the others and sent the boy to stay with his first wife, which is also Nwoye’s mother. In his stay he grew a close relationship with Nwoye and was considered part of the family. The author states “Even Okonkwo himself became very fond of the boy, inwardly of course. Okonkwo never showed any emotion openly, unless it is the emotion of anger. To show affection was a sign of weakness; the only thing worth demonstrating was strength. He therefore treated Ikemefuna as he treated everybody else- with a heavy hand” (Chinua 28). Later in the text, the clan came to Okonkwo and told him that Umuofia had decided to kill the boy. As they were killing Ikemefuna, Okonkwo decided to take parts in the killing. The author claims “Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak” (Chinua 61). “Because of Okonkwo's fear of being perceived as weak and lazy, he did many unreasonable things” (Ikuenobe 11).This scene shows how much Okonkwo values and cares about his pride and would go to any measures to keep it. He did not have to part take in the killing of Ikemefuna but his pride was far more important to him.

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One emotion that caused Okonkwo to become the man him became was fear of abandonment. He did not his people to talk about negatively or go against him like they did to his father. Having a high title was important to him and his people and this caused him to do anything and everything to make sure he was thought highly of. Experiencing what he experienced as a child made him want to strive higher than he can ever imagine becoming a man. 

            Another psychoanalytic issue Okonkwo faced was insecurity. He was so focused on what might people think of him that in the end, he ended up losing his family. Your family should be more important to you than your pride, but coming from his culture and facing the obstacles he had to face made him become a very insecure man. To the point he cared about no one else’s feelings but his own.

            In the end of the novel Okonkwo’s “heavy hand” drove his son away. Nwoye became a missioner not a farmer like his father wanted him to be. He did not believe in the same customs as the village did and went his own way. As for Okonkwo he hung himself in his village. I think he committed suicide because of the guilt he felt for all the hurt he had caused in the past. I believe he came to a breaking point.

                This novel explores a very different way culture is defined and its way of being pursued. Fatherhood was personally important to me because I know what it is like not to have a good father. There are many ways men lack in being fathers, not only being abusive. My father was never there for me physical, so I related to Nwoye in sense that we do not know what it is to have a good father. Although fatherhood is important, people make out to be successful without their fathers and I think that is what matters the most.

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Work Citation

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Aigboje Higo and Heinemann, 1959.

Okunoye, Oyeniyi. “Half a Century of Reading Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart”. English         

Studies. Vol. 91, No. 1, February. 2010.

Ikuenobe, Polycarp. “The Idea of Personhood in Chinua Achebe's: Things Fall Apart”.

Department of Philosophy, Kent State University, 1 Aug. 2006

Msiska-Hangson, Mpalive. “A Resource for Cultural Theory: Things Fall Apart”.

Birkbeck, University of London, UK, 1 Jul. 2010.

Tyson, Lois. Learning for a Diverse World: Using Critical Theory to Read and Write About

Literature. Great Britain: Routledge , 2001