Character Development

Childhood

In the start of the novel Okonkwo is a proud individual whose only goal in life is to achieve success and prove to the rest of the Umoufia tribe that he is not like his father. Throughout his childhood Okonkwo led an independent life as he could not rely on his father. Okonkwo never expected to inherit anything from his father and so he needed to make a name for himself, which he first accomplished after wrestling Amalinze the Cat.

Adulthood

Okonkwo's success was achieved when he was able to build and develop his compound into the drawing you see above. In Umoufia, a man with multiple wives was seen as a wealthy individual, this represented Okonkwo as he had three different wives that each had their own house on the compound. Okonkwo's success was quickly brought to an end as he was exiled to Mbanta due to an accidental killing of a tribesman. This led Okonkwo to rely on others for help in order to rebuilt his legacy.

During/Returning from Exile

During his exile in Mbanta, a extreme shift in Okonkwo's character was noticed as he allowed his arrogance to show and resented the help he recieved. Okonkwo felt as thought accepting this help from his Uncle showed weakness and reminded him off his father's failure as Unoka was always in need of help from others.

Once he returned to his home village, Okonkwo noticed a major change in his home village as the White missionaries have settled in and are spreading through the village like an uncontrollable epidemic. Once he realized that he no longer was recogized as a leader in the village and therefore felt as if he has failed to prove his worth to his town. Sadly, Okonkwo's "failure" led him to take his own life because could not live with the thought of failure.