We
all know parents play an essential role in how children turn out; Moreover, the
truth is that probably all of us have ever seen our parents as role models; however,
this is not the case of Okonkwo from the Chinua Achebe's novel Things fall apart. Okonkwo thought exactly the other
way round: He was in an eternal fight against being like his father.
For the Igbo community, the role of a father is not
only the provider for the family, but also a defender of its honor and teacher
of his sons; that's why children are supposed to follow his footsteps in order
to keep the precious values of the older generations. However, Okonkwo
didn't respect anything about his father's "legacy", he always
thought his father was seen as weak and coward (The opposite of what he thought
an Igbo man should be) so he was afraid of becoming similar to him.
Thanks to his obsession of behaving in the
completely opposite way of his father, Okonkwo got involved in several
conflicts and crimes in order to show his superiority and leadership. These
situations forced him to leave the community. After 7 years being away, the
time to return home arrived. Unfortunately for Okonkwo, he had to face his
biggest fear: The white Christian missioners had arrived his home and had
converted everybody into Christianity, his people were all submitted, weak and
dishonored. The identity of the Igbo was lost. Finally, Okonkwo couldn't stand
the situation and committed suicide.
As a conclusion, we can probably say that we have seen
a clear example of a person who spent his whole life being more focused on
avoiding his father's way of life than living his own. His obsession made him
lose everything: his family, his people, his honor and finally, his life.
I can associate this to the fact that we are generally trying to fit in, to be recognized and to be acknowledged by those who surround us. Hence, we tend to completely lose ourselves in order to become that specific model that is being sold as the right one to be or follow..
ResponderEliminarNowadyas, there are many stereotypes little boys and girls try to live up to, which in real life context are just false commercial images, such as standarts of beauty and health, or intelligence, promoted to sell a product, despite the great deal of psychological damage that is being caused to many members of our society that are emotionally unstable, and are unable to separate right from wrong and vicerversa.
The questions that I am eager to answer is: if we are always seeking to be someone else or to have the things that we do not have, do human beings at some point in time will stop looking to their neighbor's garden and just start taking care of their own regardless of what others may have to say?
About the post, I think that the life Okonkwo chose to build and live is not far from our reality nowadays. There are still many people who live trying to prove a point or to become something they are not, as Carolina said in the previous comment, people try to live up to certain stereotypes, instead of being their own person, the difference lies in the fact that for some people, this is just a phase and they find themselves over time, but for others it is a reality, like it was for Okonkwo.
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