Okonkwo is impulsive; he acts before he thinks. Consequently, Okonkwo offends the Igbo people and their traditions as well as the gods of his clan. Okonkwo is advised not to participate in the murder of Ikefemuna, but he actually kills Ikefemuna because he is “afraid of being thought weak.” When the white man brings Christianity to Umuofia, Okonkwo is opposed to the new ways. He feels that the changes are destroying the Igbo culture, changes that require compromise and accommodation—two qualities that Okonkwo finds intolerable. Too proud and inflexible, he clings to traditional beliefs and mourns the loss of the past.
Okonkwo wanted to prove that he was cut out for great things. He would have found comfort in the understanding, ‘Fortunately, among these people a man was judged according to his worth and not according to the worth of his father.’ At the age of 18, Okonkwo shot into fame by becoming the greatest wrestler in Umuofia and other nearby villages. With two barns, two titles, three wives and eight children, Okonkwo was on the rise.
Okonkwo was not only ambitious but worked as a practical man. He approached Nwakibie, a rich farmer, for yam seeds to begin farming. He did this paying full respect to this man as well as impressing him about his ability to work hard. This paid off and he received yam seeds more than what he asked for. Okonkwo did not lose heart and give up whenever there was crop failure due to heavy rain or draught. This shows his determination to succeed.
He loved his children and was concerned about their future, though did not express it externally. We can see that when Ezinma was taken ill and the traumatic times she had to go through to get rid of her troubled destiny as an ‘ogbanje’. When one night Ezinma was taken to the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves by Chielo, the priestess, he followed Ekwefi as an anxious father. Okonkwo was also worried about Nwoye, his eldest son. He found him lacking in manly qualities. We see Okonkwo sharing his grief about Nwoye to Obierika, his greatest friend. His comment that ‘there is too much of his mother in him,’ shows his desperation. Though not his own son, he loves Ikemefuna and treats him like his son. He was shocked when he knew that the boy is going to be killed.
Therefore, it is found that Okonkwo is a hard working and focused farmer, an ambitious but practical man, a great wrestler and warrior, a rich man, one who has gained status in society, one who loves his children, and one who respects his traditions. But Okonkwo also suffered from several weaknesses and some of these would have contributed to his downfall.
"Since I survived that year," he always said, "I shall survive anything." He put it down to his inflexible will. His father, Unoka, who was then an ailing man, had said to him during that terrible harvest month: "Do not despair. I know that you will not despair. You have a manly and a proud heart. A proud heart can survive a general failure because such a failure does not prick its pride. It is more difficult and more bitter when a man fails alone." Okonkwo believed that because he was such a fierce fighter, he could conquer anything life threw at him. However, it was his fierce, proud, fighting attitude that was his demise in the face of uncontrollable circumstances in the end. Okonkwo believed that war and brute fighting would fix everything. He was a proud and stubborn man constantly struggling to improve his standing in the tribal community. Okonkwo also had intense pride for his tribe and way of life. He believed it was the right way of life and not to be questioned. Everyone was supposed to fear war with Umofia due to their fierce warriors and greatness in battle. When the white men not only did not fear them, but openly threatened the tribal way of life, Okonkwo prepared to handle the situation the only way he knew how. He wanted to got to war against the new white invaders, chasing them from tribal lands and ending the threat of different ways of life. Throughout the story, you came to believe that Okonkwo could indeed survive any hardship he encountered in his life. He had overcame his meager beginnings, the reputation of his lazy father, the one extremely harsh harvest, having to kill the young boy who called him father, the constant worry of losing Ezinma, being exiled from Umofia for the accidental killing of the young boy. Despite all these trials and tribulations, Okonkwo was buoyed by his intense pride and the intense pride he had for Umofia and the tribal way of life. This was what Okonkwo clung to as the steadying force in his life. It was when he finally became aware that the way of life he so cherished was gone, that he gave up and took his own life.
