In Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart, Nwoye is Okonkwo, the protagonist's, son. Nwoye has a difficult relationship with his father, who holds him to the very highest standards of masculinity in Igbo culture. Okonkwo does not hesitate to share his displeasure in many of his son's behaviors or decisions, which he classifies as effeminate and unbefitting of a man.
Okonkwo and Nwoye's relationship is complicated by the adoption and death of Ikemefuna. Nwoye...
In Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart, Nwoye is Okonkwo, the protagonist's, son. Nwoye has a difficult relationship with his father, who holds him to the very highest standards of masculinity in Igbo culture. Okonkwo does not hesitate to share his displeasure in many of his son's behaviors or decisions, which he classifies as effeminate and unbefitting of a man.
Okonkwo and Nwoye's relationship is complicated by the adoption and death of Ikemefuna. Nwoye and his adoptive brother became quite close, and although Ikemefuna's murder was sanctioned by the village men, Okonkwo's involvement and subsequent guilt was an additional burden on the father-son relationship.
When the white missionaries arrive in the village, Okonkwo violently rejects them. He has spent his entire life striving to achieve Igbo ideals, with which the missionaries do not align. Nwoye, on the other hand, becomes close to the missionaries, in part because he has always felt out of place in the village. Eventually, he joins the church, adopts a Christianized name, and leaves the village to be trained in western styles of teaching.
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