Things Fall Apart

I understand that Okonkwo wants to be nothing like his father. However,I don’t think he has to come off as emotionless. If anything he is making himself harder to connect with and understand. He has his mind set on not showing weakness that he will show cruelty to his family and even disregard the other people in the village. When they told him he would be punished after beating his wife during the Week of Peace he is adamant about not letting the people in his community see that he knows he was wrong or that he regrets hat he did. If his goal is to truly be respected then why does he not act accordingly to the usual responses of the other villagers? His stubbornness is an off turn and each time that there is a mention off his strength and power he contradicts himself with his impulsive, emotionless ways. Then again when he is told that Ikemefuna would be killed and that he should have no hand in his death, he decides to disregard this in fear of looking weak. This shows how uncompassionate Okonkwo is. Rather than dealing with the pain and guilt of having to take Ikemefuna to the forest to be killed, when Ikemefuna asked him for help he decided to kill him himself. The last thing that Ikemefuna saw was his so called “father” swinging an axe at him. Are Okwonko’s ideals and morals so messed up that he would hurt his own family in order to save face amongst his community? Considering that he was told that he should not have a part in Ikemefunak’s death, I think that because of Okonkwo’s own father he is misguided on what true strength is and just decides that whatever his father was or showed was the opposite of strength. Therefore, that is what Okonkwo strives to be.