Okonkwo will not openly show kind emotions to others, like us. He would only show anger and frustration, believing that affection are signs of weakness and should be kept hidden. Okonkwo is a dominant clan leader in Umuofia. His shame towards his father, Unoka, drove him to success, along with hard work and expertise during war. He achieved a position of high status within the clan and is extremely wealthy to be able to support three wives and their children. Although fear of becoming like his father was his drive for success, it is also his internal flaw. It causes him to make reckless actions with emotions. Okonkwo’s family relationships make him a sympathetic character because he loves and feels compassion toward his family, but hides it, and is unsympathetic because he does not want to …show more content…
In Chinua Achebe’s book Things Fall Apart, a quote says, “‘Ask my dead father if he ever had a fowl when he was alive.’ Everybody laughed wholeheartedly except Okonkwo, who laughed uneasily because, as the saying goes, an old woman is always uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb. Okonkwo remembered his father” (Achebe 21). This quote shows that, even through the shame his father brought him, he still felt a bit of sympathy towards him. Okonkwo strongly disliked his father’s actions, but did not want to show disrespect. Another quote in Things Fall Apart is “And supporting his mother also meant supporting his father. She could not be expected to cook and eat while her husband starved” (Achebe 22). This shows that Okonkwo did not want to support his father since he brought poverty upon himself, but did it anyway for his mother. Okonkwo did not want to make another person suffer because his father was a failure and a lazy man. Regardless of Unoka’s previous actions, Okonkwo still felt affection for his father and did not want them to affect others or