My Opinions of Okonkwo

Lily Tikijian
September 4, 2008
Literature Period 6
Mrs. Pfanschmidt

My Opinions of Okonkwo

Now that I have read the first 7 chapters of the book, I have a lot of opinions of Okonkwo. First of all, I think he is insane. If he was living in this time period, he would be in like in serious intensive care. He has a lot of problems that he needs to get in control of. The thing I don’t understand is that all of his problems revolve around his dead father. He doesn’t want to be known as a failure or to be known as a coward. But, he is turning out to be those things. He beats his wife and children, he murders his “son,” and he doesn’t enjoy anything but working. He does all of these things to prove that he is strong and isn’t afraid of anything and also to prove he is not a failure. But killing your own son, makes you a failure as a father and makes people lose respect for you. In a way all of those things make him a coward. He is a coward because he is afraid of what people think of him. And he does some really stupid things to prove he isn’t. But, since he does those things you know he is. Even though things like beating your wives and children was acceptable back then, he abuses that right. He beats them for simply picking leaves off of a tree. He beats his son for being “lazy” and for crying when he finds out his “brother” is being taken away. He also shoots at his wife but thankfully misses. I just think he is a terrible father, husband, and all together person who needs to go through some serious psychoanalysis.