The stereotypes and expectations that people hold on others reveals their true identity. It shows their kindness and intelligence towards others as well as the world. Masculine and religious stereotypes and expectations are demonstrated by the characters Nwoye and Okonkwo in the novel Things Fall Apart. During the story, Nwoye is pressured to be masculine and follow all religious traditions because that is what his father Okonkwo wants him to do. When Nwoye chooses to disobey his father and change his religion, a new meaning in the novel is revealed. In the novel, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the character Nwoye creates the meaning that traditions change for better through his opposing views, beliefs, and experiences from his father …show more content…
It may be thinking that someone is bad or weak based on what you have seen or heard about them. Sometimes, stereotypes can be true but other times they are wrong. Throughout the novel Okonkwo stereotypes Nwoye as weak due to his curiosity about his mother’s stories and the Christian teachings. When Nwoye’s mother is reading him a story, he reflects on how this would make his father feel, “Nwoye knew that it was right to be masculine and violent, but somehow he still preferred the stories that his mother used to tell” (Achebe 83). Nwoye knows that his father prides himself on being strong and masculine. He knows it is upsetting to him to see Nwoye straying from his perception of being a man. Okonkwo's struggle with Nwoye not being masculine enough creates the idea of traditions versus change. It helps to show the struggle in the novel of how traditions change for better by demonstrating how Nwoye is separated from his father’s and society's standard of being strong and masculine for his happiness. Nwoye finds happiness in listening to his mother’s stories which shows how he is willing to change the tradition of being masculine in order to allow himself to be happy. Nwoye’s curiosity further causes him to distance himself from their standard of being a strong man when the church missionaries come to their village. Nwoye enjoys the church’s stories that they share with him but he fears what Okonkwo might think about it, “Although Nwoye had been attracted to the new faith from the very first day, he kept it a secret. He dared not go too near the missionaries for fear of his father” (Achebe 149). After Nwoye finds that he enjoys the church, he is afraid that his father might think of him as less of a man. Nwoye knows how high Okonkwo’s standard is for how he should act. Since he chose to follow a new religion, Nwoye fears that his father will view him as weak and unmasculine due to his change in religious
Okonkwo not giving Nwoye the love that he needed, led to the relationship between the two down the road. Okonkwo was pleased with the progress in Nwoye’s development, however, he still didn’t give the love that Nwoye deserved. All Okonkwo was worried about was Nwoye being able to grow into a tough man and rule his father’s household. This would lead the reader to feel that Okonkwo isn’t supporting (which he barely does) Nwoye for the right reasons. Okonkwo was comparing Nwoye to other children that had already grown up and become strong young men.
In most fairy tales and novels a humble male role is used to dictate the normality of writing. In “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo, a strong male role is not only that, a lead character, but he is also cruel and prone to violent tendencies In the novel Okonkwo experiences harsh changes when the white men first came and at the beginning of colonialism. In “Things Fall Apart”, Achebe uses Okonkwo to display the negative change in everyday Igbo culture after colonialism. In this novel by Achebe, before colonialism was introduced, Okonkwo was a known masculine member of Umuofia.
Manhood is being treated as a human of mankind. Okonkwo, however, equates manhood to brute force and anger. Anything else was considered to be characteristic of a woman. It is this idea of manliness that pushes Nwoye into the hands of the missionaries. Okonkwo “wanted Nwoye to grow into a tough young man” and although Nwoye at times acted as if he was annoyed with the tasks the women would ask of him, “nothing pleased Nwoye now more than to be sent for by his mother or another of his father's wives” (Achebe, 36).
The reasons for Nwoye’s change in their sense of identity included his relationship with his father and his acceptance of the Missionaries. Ultimately, their response to the introduction of Western ideas shaped the meaning of the work as a whole by showing the positive effects the new culture can have on someone. The first reason Nwoye’s sense of identity was challenged with the introduction of the Western ideas was because of his relationship with his father. In the beginning of Things Fall Apart, it tells us
Okonkwo constantly struggled to create the same masculine character in Nwoye that he made for himself and constantly found a reflection of his effeminate father, Unoka, in Nwoye. Chapter two describes the relationship between Okonkwo and Nwoye in Nwoye’s youth. “Okonkwo’s first son, Nwoye, was then twelve years old but was already causing his father great anxiety for his incipient laziness... He sought to correct him by constant nagging and beating” (13-14). Okonkwo’s efforts to change Nwoye’s resemblance of Unoka were causing their relationship to be pushed apart because of Okonkwo’s violence and Nwoye’s resistance.
This angers Okonkwo so much that he physically starts hurting Nwoye which is historically tolerated in the Igbo culture. He has grown up with Okonkwo being violent towards him and his family. The reader can allude that Nwoye is drawn to Christianity’s condemnation of violence. Therefore when he hears that Christianity is a lot less violent and is displayed more calmer in the readings that are given around the village, Nwoye is immediately sold on the idea of
In Chinua Achebe novel, Things Fall Apart Nwoye a young man under Okonkwo’s responsibility is affected positively by the introduction of western ideas into the Ibo culture. This being said Nwoye has found a passion for being apart of a religion not known by any local in Igbo called Christianity, to some it was a blessing and to others a disgrace. To Okonkwo he feels that anybody who converts to Christianity is a disgrace to their village. And how surprising is it that his own son converts to a Christian. And in his conversion he tries to escape his strict culture and find out who he is as a person.
Everyone as a human being has experienced some form of change in our life, big or small, and it has a lasting effect on who they are and how they act. In Chinua Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart’, change is a forward facing theme of the whole story, we see change in all forms occur throughout the book; the arrival of the white men and their changing of the igbo culture, the tearing apart of Okonkwo’s family by religion and traditions, and the change that occurs within Okonkwo himself when he realizes he cannot prevent change from happening in the community and culture he loved. Change is destructive in ‘Things Fall Apart’, especially to such a magnitude as we see in the story, it is destructive to communities, to families, and especially to individuals.
Peter Sarsgaard once said: “I always think change is important in a character. The most dynamic choices that you can make for a character are always the best ones.” In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Nwoye, as a character without full-developed personality, experiences the most dynamic changes—the connection with Ikemefuna and the conversion to Christianity—in his growing journey.
As a child, Nwoye is the frequent object of his father's criticism and remains emotionally unfulfilled. Okonkwo, “wanted Nwoye to grow into a tough man capable of ruling his father’s household when he was dead and gone to join the ancestors”(38). When Nwoye finds out that it is Okonkwo who killed a “brother” who he is extremely fond of, and grows very close with, he loses all appreciation for Okonkwo and decides to go against his father and his cultures.
Similarly, Nwoye also resists the reputation of his own father by rejecting this masculine regime of Okonkwo and Igbo culture, showing feminine virtues instead. His intention to carry his beliefs on to his children is established when Okonkwo thinks to himself after he learns of Nwoye’s conversion to Christianity. Nwoye made the decision to leave Umofia after the realization that his views do not coincide with those of his society any longer due to the life time of exposure to the toxicity of Okonkwo’s masculine behavior. It is because he refuses to conform that Nwoye wishes to alter the reputation of himself and his family by joining a culture that he finds to reflect the values that he believes in, instead of those he was dejectedly forced into following by his
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, is a novel revealing the life and customs of a Nigerian village in the 1890’s. Okonkwo, the protagonist of the story, has a fear of becoming like his father, Unoka. Unoka, was a failure to his family and Umuofia. He was a lazy man who lacked power and respect from the people of Umuofia. From a very young age, Okonkwo makes a goal to be a powerful man, unlike his father.
His fear of weakness and failure is derived from his father, Unoka’s failures, which ignite Okonkwo’s misogynistic views. Throughout his lifetime, Okonkwo associates femininity with weakness because of Unoka, who was called an “agbala” or woman by the people of Umuofia. Since women have this reputation for weakness, Okonkwo lives with constant fear that he will be given the same title as his father. Okonkwo’s first son, Nwoye’s effeminacy reminds Okonkwo of his own father. He says, "I have done my best to make Nwoye grow into a man, but there is much of his mother in him ."(Achebe, 66).
According to Okonkwo’s tribe, the Igbo, masculinity is being strong, aggressive, and nourishing. Femininity is being weak, loving, compassionate, and devotional. Achebe highlights the definitions of masculinity and femininity to show that Okonkwo’s hypermasculinity causes his downfall. Okonkwo is trying to act too masculine and by completely rejecting feminine qualities, he sets up his destiny to be his downfall. The first instance in which things fall apart for Okonkwo is when a tribute from another village has to stay with Okonkwo for three years.
Things Fall Apart, a book written by the author Chinua Achebe is a story filled with amazing culture. It is about the rise and downfall of the main character, Okonkwo. The book had many different aspects of the African culture and the different time period. For example, characters and their importance throughout the story, and how women were treated in this culture and time period. Topics from religion, family, and the social complexity were very much involved throughout the entire book and portrayed by many of the characters.