The Strengths and Weaknesses of Okonkwo

Okonkwo has many assets to his character that could be seen as faults or desirable
character traits. Some of his strengths then develop into weaknesses through the
progression of the novel. Okonkwo is a man who has a fear of weakness, a fear that
stems from his father, who unlike Okonkwo was lazy and improvident. Okonkwo’s
father was unsuccessful and title less, this brought shame on Okonkwo from a early
age, so he strived to be inverse from his father in every way. He tucked his emotions
away and supplemented all of them with an occasional burst of anger to show his
strength. “Okonkwo never showed any emotion openly, unless it be the emotion of
anger”

Okonkwo resentment for his father has left him lacking in a few interpersonal skills
such as empathy. His one main flaw was his failure of weakness; it drove him towards
success, and then finally drove him to end of a noose. His self-confidence, power and
manliness become at times, rather self destructive which result in him beating his son
and wife and other misdoings. His wife is beaten during Ojiugo (A sacred week of
peace) this is looked down upon by the tribe who hold strong significance in religion.
To his defence like any human he must of felt guilt and remorse for his actions, he
didn’t want to show this emotion, to sustain his manliness. The conflict arose with his
inner judgement (emotion) and his belief, he knew it was wrong to hit his wife and
son, but his rage and belief of success told him, it was necessary. Okonkwo
resentment for his father has left him lacking in a few interpersonal skills like
empathy.

Although with his determination to win and fear of weakness, he won titles, wrestling
matches and had 3 wives all things worth respect and honour within his tribe. His
personal traits also directly lead to his downfall along with his misjudgement. With
bottled up emotion and pride he set forth to execute his adopted son who had to be
sacrificed for religious reasons. He was advised by a close friend not to partake in the
killing. Characteristically he went with his pride and manliness, thinking that he
would be seen as weak if he, himself didn’t take care of his own responsibility. The
relationship between Okonkwo and his adopted song was strong he was raised by
Okonkwo for many years; he could have easily been seen as the favoured son, over
Okonkwo’s own biological son. In an act of apathy he kills his son, not in an act of
wrath but rather for his own status and reputation. Disregarding his emotion it comes
back to haunt him and he is depressed not eating, loosing sleep and drinking palm
wine, he never really recovers from this trauma.. Even after his violations of the
tribe’s customs and belligerent behaviour he remains in the tribe with some respect in
tact. However During a funeral Okonkwo’s rifle misfires in a sort of act of karma
towards Okonkwo, this leads to the death of a boy and in turn Okonkwo being exiled
for 7 years. His house is also burnt down which is symbolic of his behaviour he is a
fiery character who has a temper to match and this results in him burning out after a
busy life rather then fading out. He disregards his emotion constantly in his desire for
reputation, fame and wealth and becomes rather destructive as a result.

A great strength of Okonkwo was his ability to learn from others mistakes his father
was a prime example of everything he didn’t want to be, so he did the exact opposite.
His mistake was taking it to the extreme opposite which juxtaposed to his father was
not a good way to lead a life.

By Adam Schiller