Okonkwo’s most important treasure is his pride which drives him to make hasty and destructive decisions. His life decisions are based off internal influences such as pride, this creates a tunnelled vision for Okonkwo when looking at situations. Given a situation, Okonkwo looks at it with his pride in the back of his head, and what he will do to make himself look stronger. Knowing that his new son, Ikemefuna, is to be killed Okonkwo is told not to be part in his death. Okonkwo's stubborn and single-minded brain thought only about his pride and what he had to do to look strong. Okonkwo disobeyed his direction, and killed Ikemefuna with no second thought. “Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought of weak”(Achebe
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Okonkwo’s strong fear of becoming like his unsuccessful, failure of a father inhibits what decisions he makes in every moment of his life. Internal influences like pride and fear are the basis for his life decisions. As a young man Okonkwo did not inherit a barn or yams from his father due to his unsuccessfulness. “Okonkwo did not have the start in life which many other young men usually had. He did not inherit a barn from his father”(Achebe 16). This shows that Okonkwo had to rebuild his father’s destruction and start from scratch. This made Okonkwo a stronger man, but also put a great fear inside of him. This fear was to not resemble or be like his father in any way, shape , or form. This is why he was very strict and harsh to his son and wives, making him look stronger, preventing him from looking weak. This slowly pushed his first son, Nwoye, away from him. Okonkwo did not want Nwoye to end up like his father, he did not want him to be weak, lazy, or unsuccessful. Although Okonkwo had good intentions for Nwoye, it was not want Nwoye wanted which led him to leave and join the newly established missionaries. These people brought a new religion, christianity, which intrigued Nwoye and led him to leave his family and join these new people. The fear of being like his father inhibited Okonkwo’s decisions but strengthened his
Okonkwo’s strong fear of becoming like his unsuccessful, failure of a father inhibits what decisions he makes in every moment of his life. Internal influences like pride and fear are the basis for his life decisions. As a young man Okonkwo did not inherit a barn or yams from his father due to his unsuccessfulness. “Okonkwo did not have the start in life which many other young men usually had. He did not inherit a barn from his father”(Achebe 16). This shows that Okonkwo had to rebuild his father’s destruction and start from scratch. This made Okonkwo a stronger man, but also put a great fear inside of him. This fear was to not resemble or be like his father in any way, shape , or form. This is why he was very strict and harsh to his son and wives, making him look stronger, preventing him from looking weak. This slowly pushed his first son, Nwoye, away from him. Okonkwo did not want Nwoye to end up like his father, he did not want him to be weak, lazy, or unsuccessful. Although Okonkwo had good intentions for Nwoye, it was not want Nwoye wanted which led him to leave and join the newly established missionaries. These people brought a new religion, christianity, which intrigued Nwoye and led him to leave his family and join these new people. The fear of being like his father inhibited Okonkwo’s decisions but strengthened his