A remarkable antecedent novel of Africa literature, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, exposes a lot of Nigerian cultures of the twentieth-century and before, especially in the area of religion. Focusing a great amount of attention on the religious aspect, Achebe��s plot contains the essence of a Greek Tragedy, wherein a character exhibits a fatal flaw that pits them against a god or goddess, which eventually results in one��s destruction. In Things Fall Apart, one who cursed with this role is Okonkwo, a character striving to surpass his destiny, yet whose Chi or personal god was found lacking. Despite his fate, Okonkwo lives his life through disguising his feelings and thoughts, yet some distinguishing features open readers to a sense of Okonkwo��s overall personality. These qualities can be classified into two large groups, the superficial appearance and internal character.
Firstly, part I of the book plays a pivotal role in revealing physical appearances and exhibiting Okonkwo��s external personality: he is filled with ambition, masculine and virile. This is mostly due to his father��s idle, weak, poor, and tender natures; as such Okonkwo was born and brought up in harsh conditions. To mask his own sense of incompleteness at being his father��s son, he intentionally made up himself to be audacious, violent, productive, and prosperous, and naturally objected to everything recognized as ��soft�� or related to ��woman��. To exemplify, some times he displays his masculinity through committing violence in his compound, on his three wives and several children, even though his loves them greatly. In chapter two, he beats up his first son Nwoye when he shows laziness and weakness, traits Okonkwo hates the most since in their display he recognizes his father��s character. Also in chapter four, he beats his youngest wife for her negligence of missing the time for his meal, during the Week of Peace, which is his first crime against the gods. Okonkwo is the champion of the nine villages in wrestling, and is fond of war and fighting for the protection and elevation of his clan. Hence, when the missionaries came to change their traditions, he disregarded the white men and encouraged attacking them, but when his opinion was ignored and rejected, he choose death rather than face the shame of the white man��s justice.
As the book goes on, Okonkwo appears less virile and strict, but softer and more responsible in his job of being a husband and father. Achebe often uses the word ��inwardly�� in the novel to indicate Okonkwo��s feelings and thoughts deep in his mind. It is largely because Okonkwo covers his emotions from people associated with him due to his fear of being branded as weak. To illustrate, in chapter seven, clansman received the message from the oracle that they were to sacrifice Ikemefuna, a boy who calls Okonkwo ��father��, yet is not blood related. Although Okonkwo became extremely fond of the boy, he delivered the final blow, which led to the death of Ikemefuna, since he was afraid of exhibiting affection for the boy and appearing as a coward. Unfortunately, this was Okonkwo��s second transgression against the tribe and it��s gods, and despite that after the death of Ikemefuna, Okonkwo spent three days without any food and sleep, he is still too bullheaded to truly repent. Chapter nine uncovered Okonkwo��s trait of tender and gentle cares for his family though furtive follows Ekwefi who also sneaked to protect Ezinma. Through this part, readers catch the sense of Okonkwo��s quality, strong protection and responsibility beyond the terrified outer features.
In conclusion, Okonkwo fatal flaw is his impulsive and uncontrollable anger which leads him to commit three transgressions against the tribe and its gods, the third being Okonkwo��s murder of the colonial officer and his suicide. He continuously attempts to conceal his sentiments thanks to anxiety of being compared to a woman or like his father, yet he cannot escape the fact that his father��s blood is in him, so he harks on the flaws in those around him. Mostly, he appears real brave and indifferent to others, as he desired and expected. Yet in someway, his inward personality is outspoken by unanticipated occasions when his family needs to rely on him. All in all, Okonkwo could be craved into real man in the readers�� memories since the warm and earnest caring for his people was indispensable when they recall the image of Okonkwo, and moved the public indeed.