What are some differences and similarities between Nywoye and Okonkwo?

From the start of the novel, Okonkwo, the protagonist, is described as very prideful and someone who adheres very closely to the customs and the traditions of his people, the Igbo. He is someone who “ruled his household with a heavy hand” (Achebe 13) and causes fear in his children and wives. Okonkwo thinks any kind of emotional weakness is womanly and measures his own worth by the success of his crops and the number...

From the start of the novel, Okonkwo, the protagonist, is described as very prideful and someone who adheres very closely to the customs and the traditions of his people, the Igbo. He is someone who “ruled his household with a heavy hand” (Achebe 13) and causes fear in his children and wives. Okonkwo thinks any kind of emotional weakness is womanly and measures his own worth by the success of his crops and the number of wives and children he has. His son, Nwoye, on the other hand, desires to break away from the traditions of the Igbo, including those that say manliness is the most important trait.

When the Christians come to bring their religion to the Igbo people, Okonkwo is very resistant and wants to convince the other tribal members to fight back (this resistance is part of what leads to his downfall). Nwoye, however, sees something in the message of the Christians and decides to convert. Because Nwoye questions certain traditions of the Igbo, such as the custom to kill twins because they are seen as an abomination, he is drawn to Christianity as an answer to some of his questions. Achebe writes that when Nwoye encounters the Christian missionaries, he was “captivated” by the “poetry of the new religion” (147). While the arrival of the Christians was a way for Nwoye to escape his father, for Okonkwo, it was the beginning of the end.

Perhaps the only similarity between the two is their fondness for Ikemefuna, who is forced to leave his own village and stay at Okonwko’s compound as compensation for a wrong done to the Igbo people by a man of another village. Ikemefuna’s fate is sealed from the beginning, but Okonwko cannot help become attached to him, regardless. Nwoye, too, “became quite inseparable” from Ikemefuna. This, again, might be the only similarity between Okonkwo and Nwoye.