Manhood in Things Fall Apart
Manhood means something very different for each of the three male characters: Unoka, Okonkwo and Nwoye. I believe that idea of manhood holds the most meaning for Okonkwo. Okonkwo was scared of being seen as feminine or “soft”. Okonkwo based his beliefs on manhood on very traditional values. Everything good in Okonkwo's life has come from masculine dominated or associated ideals. Starting from a very early age Okonkwo has feared being like his father, amongst other negative attributes Okonkwo sees his father above all else as feminine. The fear of Okonkwo to be like his father drives him to be the opposite in every way possible. Due to seeing his father as a lazy, squandering excuse of a man Okonkwo make his own way for himself. He does this first by obtaining slight fame by wrestling and defeating Amalinze “the Cat” in a wrestling competition. This brought honor to his village, which also brought honor upon Okonkwo. As he grew into manhood Okonkwo became known for being a fierce warrior, as well as successful farmer; both of which in the Igbo society were seen as masculine roles. Through the drive to be ultra masculine Okonkwo did become very successful, in his eyes it was due to his hard work and his drive to do better than his father. Although this ultra masculine characteristics that brought Okonkwo success, aggression, rashness, and violence was what also brought his demise. Okonkwo saw manhood as never showing weakness. This could be weakness as a father, like when Okonkwo collected medicine for his daughter Ezinma when she was sick or weakness as a provider to his entire family, like how Okonkwo fanatically worked and farmed to guarantee their future. The book opened ten years after Unoka's death, because of this we really only get to hear about him from the biased view of Okonkwo. Due to this I don't think we can conclude very much information from Unoka, but what we can conclude is that Unoka did what his wanted in life. He was not compelled to fit into