1. 2. Stern and Bad Temper

Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond his fame rested on solid personal achievement. As a young man, he had brought honor to his village by throwing Amalinze the Cat the wrestling match. That was many years ago, twenty years or more, and during this time Okonkwos fame had grown like a bush-fire in the harmattan. p.3. Young Okonkwo starts his success by throwing Amalinze the Cat in the wrestling match. It suddenly changes his life because he had defeated a tough wrestler who is unbeaten for seven years. At first, Okonkwo gets his fame as the greatest wrestler, and then he gets everything. He was still young but he had won fame as the greatest wrestler in the nine villages. He was a wealthy farmer and had two barns full of yams, and had just married his third wife. To crown it all he had taken two titles and had shown incredible prowess in two inter-tribal wars. p.8 On the other hand, Unoka, his father, spends his lifetime in laziness. He does not want to work. He gets his money by borrowing from his neighbors. Unoka is a man who is incapable in organizing his money and his life. He spends all of his money to have a party and buy some wine. Unoka, for that was his fathers name, had died ten years ago. In his day he was lazy and improvident and was quite incapable of thinking about tomorrow. If any money came to his way, and it seldom did, he immediately bought gourds of palm-wine, called round his neighbors and made merry... Unoka was, of course, a debtor, and he owed every neighbor some money, from a few cowries to quite substantial amounts. p.4 Different with Okonkwo, Unoka grows in his failure. He brings his family into a great poverty. He does not have any money to feed his wife and children. Moreover, people do not give any respect to him because he is such a lazy person. People do not respect Unokas fear in taking any war. He is a coward who cannot stand to see the bloodshed. In his death, Unoka left a bad memory, as he had never taken any title in his village at all. It is very bad, because a man who has no title at all is considered as a woman or agbala. Unoka, the grown-up, was a failure. He was poor and his wife and children had barely enough to eat. People laughed at him because he was a loafer, and they swore never to lend him any more money because he never paid back. p.5... Unoka was never happy when it came to wars. He was in fact a coward and could not bear the sight of blood… p.6... When Unoka died he had taken no title at all and he was heavily in debt. p.8 The differences of Okonkwo and his fathers life cause a conflict not only between Okonkwo and his father, but also Okonkwo and all unsuccessful men. In this conflict, Okonkwo does not fight against a real opponent. His opponent is inside his mind. He is in a conflict against the memory of his father. He has to force out the fear of his fathers failure and weakness that haunts his life. Okonkwos inner conflict has appeared since he was a kid, but it grows bigger after the death of his father. After the death of his father, Okonkwo is haunted by his fathers failure and weakness. This haunting memory becomes Okonkwos biggest fear. It influences the way he rules his life and treats other people. Moreover, this fear has dominated his life. He hates everything that signifies his fathers failure and weakness. As the result, he works hard to achieve his success and to avoid any condition for being weak. He will never give any respect to lazy and weak people. He does that in order to show his hatred to unsuccessful men. Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness. It was deeper and more intimate than the fear of evil and capricious gods and of magic, the fear of the forest, and of the forces of nature, malevolent, red in tooth and claw. Okonkwos fear was greater than these. It was not external but lay deep within himself. It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father. p.13 From the quotation above, it can be seen clearly that Okonkwo does not scare to his father. In fact, he scares to his fathers misfortune. He does not want to be like his father. So, he does everything to avoid his fathers misfortune. That is why he tries to expel his fear of his fathers failure and weakness every time. Okonkwo can only expel his fear for a while, but not keep it away forever. So, it is obvious if this fear appears again when he deals with his first son, Nwoye. As a great man, Okonkwo is easy to give the mark of weakness to every person who does not resemble him. In his point of view, those who do not work and live as well as him will be considered as lazy and weak people. His second conflict is with his son, Nwoye. It is stated in the novel that Nwoye starts showing his laziness and weakness. Okonkwo is dissapointed to see the development of his first son because Nwoye does not do the same thing as what Okonkwo did in his childhood. Moreover, he often makes a lot of mistake in dealing with mens business. Based on those things, Okonkwo considers his first son as a lazy and weak person. Okonkwo cannot tolerate Nwoyes behavior. He never understands to his first sonscondition. He is very worried if his first son grows to be like his father, Unoka. That is why Okonkwo has to eliminate laziness and weakness from Nwoyes mind. The only reason that made his father live in a great poverty until his death was his own laziness. Okonkwos first son, Nwoye, was then twelve years old but was already causing his father great anxiety for his incipient laziness. At any rate, that was how it looked to his father, and he sought to correct him by constant nagging and beating. And so Nwoye was developing into a sad-faced youth. pp. 13-14