things fall apart response 1

So far, there are several elements of this book that I do not like. I especially do not like the character of Okonkwo. I find him very stubborn and arrogant. Achebe describes Okonkwo as “not a man of thought but of action” (69) and he thought “To show affection was a sign of weakness” (28). I totally disagree with this type of character because I was brought up to ‘think before you speak’ and I believe thinking is a lot more important than acting before thinking about it I think this is one of Okonkwo’s main flaws and is the reason why he feels so bad for killing Ikemefuna. If he had thought about it before he acted, I think he would have realized that he was making a huge decision. I also think showing emotions is important or else you will not be a happy person. Maybe this is why Okonkwo has such a bad temper.
I also don’t like Okonkwo’s attitude towards women. He regards them as weak and lower to men. Chapter seven even states “No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children (and especially his women) he was not really a man” (Achebe 53). He has three wives and treats them equally badly. The fact that he beats them and he shot at one of them disgusts me. To me, that shows weakness because he cannot simply talk to his wife, but he rather resort to violence, which does not solve anything.
I feel bad for Okonkwo’s son, Nwoye, who became very close to Ikemefuna. I feel like there are several differences between Nwoye and his father. Nwoye is more logical and still “prefer[s] the stories that his mother tells” (Achebe 53). However, “Okonkwo encouraged the boys to sit with him… and he told them stories of the land- masculine stories of violence and bloodshed” (Achebe 53). Okonkwo, on the other hand, is more physical and only concerned with how many people a man has killed. I predict that Nwoye will soon grow apart from Okonkwo because of their differences, just like Okonkwo and his father did.
I hope the book gets better soon because right now it is a little slow and I am not getting the whole picture. I hope it picks up!