Friday, February 28, 2014

Okonkwo

I absolutely loved Things Fall Apart. Regardless of Okonkwo's flaws, I find his character very refreshing. In today's world, most protagonists are the stereotypical heroes who usually have integrity, cleverness, and patience. Beside those few wife/child-beating scenes, I actually quite enjoyed seeing Okonkwo's flaws emerge, because it showed his humanity. As hard as authors try to create the ideal human, nobody is perfect. I for one understand exactly how it feels to fear failure. Often times I've tried so hard to make things perfect, and as luck would have it, everything always seems to fall apart. I've had to learn (the hard way), that sometimes the best results come from pure spontaneity or relaxed planning.

2 comments:

Brooke M. Hathaway said...

I completely agree. I feel like nothing about Okonkwo's character was forced. Does that make sense? He wasn't perfect (like a John Green character), but he also wasn't too outside of the box (like Oscar or Underground Man).

Unknown said...

While it is nice that he wasn't a perfect character, I still really didn't like Okonkwo. I just can't get past his brutality. He mercilessly beats his wives and children several times, but he never really gets in any trouble for it. I don't think that characters should have no flaws, but Okonkwo was, in my opinion, too flawed, if that makes sense.