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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
