Okonkwo

Okonkwo is character around which the story “Things Fall Apart” centers. Okonkwo desires to be a respected member of his Nigerian clan, a successful yam farmer, and fearless warrior. In short, he wants to be everything that his father was not. He detests the characteristics of idleness and laziness that defined his father and is disappointed when his eldest son seems to take after the man.

From a young age, Okonkwo sets about working hard so that he can have the life that he intends. Because of a freak accident, however, Okonkwo is banished from his home village for seven years and forced to seek refuge in his mother’s homeland. Everything he had worked for up to that point in this life is gone.

Although he succeeds in his motherland, everything has changed in Okonkwo’s village when he is allowed to return. Christians have come into...