27 June 2012
Connections to the text
As I have been reading this book, I have discovered that Okonkwo is a very devoted person. One who doesn't give in easy and is willing to work for what he wants to achieve. He is strong idiviual with lots to fight for. Seeing as his father left him with little to survive on and little to work with but debt when he passed. Okonkwo is one who never gives up, one who never backs down. And personal I think this what makes him the strong individual he is through out the first few chapters.
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4 comments:
I agree with you Larry. I think that instead of simply failing and blaming his father for the life he could have lived he fights to achieve greater things than his father and to assure himself that he is nothing like his father was. Yet at the same time, as you will see later in the book,i think this devotion and drive to be more than his father is also a major contributor to Okonkwo's depressing downfall later in the book.
I completely agree! Okonkwo was so devoted to become a greater man and definition of masculinity. He did this through killing Ikemefuna, abuse of his family, and constant anger/violent outbursts.
I think Okonkwo is a weak person. He blames others for his misfortunes instead of accepting his life and moving on. His entire life he lived in spite of what his father had done instead of moving on with his own life. He became obsessed with power and strength. I believe this was due to the fact that he felt very insecure about himself. He thought he had to prove himself to the world. A strong man would be indifferent as to how others see him and would work for success for his own happiness. Okonkwo is never happy and I believe this is because he is not content with himself. His father was a strong man because he did what made him happy, even though it went against the social standards of the village. But Okonkwo conformed to the outlines of his village which makes him weak. To top it all off, he comities the weakest action of all: suicide. If he was truly as strong as he had preached his entire life, he would have stayed alive and fought for what he believed in. But no. Okonkwo saw his village as a failure and because he conformed himself so much to his village, this inevitably made him a failure as well. He was a weak man weakened by his own standards.
I agree with Mo. I don’t think that it is devotion that drives his actions, but rather fear. He is so afraid of becoming his father that he pushes himself and everyone around him. Although to other tribes people he may look powerful, he is actually just weak and afraid. He is so afraid of failure he works very hard to avoid it. I also think his fear of failure contributed to his death. When Okonkwo realized he had failed to make his tribe see the evilness of the missionaries and their ways he kills himself.
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