Achebe Portrays Okonkwo As A Successful Hero In „Things Fall Apart“

Achebe portrays Okonkwo as a successful hero in „Things Fall Apart“.

In the first chapters the reader gets introduced to Okonkwo and his father. The reader gets to know Okonkwo’s father and how his past influences Okonkwo’s actions later in the story. In his day Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, was a lazy and improvident, and was quite incapable of thinking about tomorrow while Unoka the grownup, was a failed man. He was poor, unable to provide for his family and was often laughed at by other men from the village. Unoka was a debtor and owed every neighbor some money.

When growing up, Okonkwo despised his father for all the terrible things he has done or not done: not being able to support his family, being lazy and always being in debt. Therefore, he hated everything his father loved like singing, dancing, doing nothing when there is work to be done. That makes him act uptight and he puts a lot of pressure on his children to be productive and wants them to work hard like him so that they can achieve something later in life, which in the readers view makes him as good and successful father.