We're nearing the end of the novel and I've noticed that Okonkwo hasn't changed at all. At the beginning, I always thought that he would have a change of heart and be kinder towards his people and family. But ever since the Christians came and tried to convert their people to their religion,, abandoning African traditions, you can start to see Okonkwo getting even more angry. I feel like the last straw broke inside of him and he went mad the moment Nywoe abandon his father's beliefs and converted to a Christian. After that moment, it's shown that Okonkwo has a sort of vendetta against the Christians, wanting to wipe them out of existence.
I think there was always that hope that something good would happen to Okonkwo that would help us see a kinder side to himself when he got banished, but it looks like it went in the wrong direction. Sure, he did worry about his daughter Ezimna when Chielo took her to see her gods, but it seems that a sliver of kindness goes to Ezimna. Maybe because she's want he looks for in his sons. However, it changes when he wishes she was rather a boy than a girl. That's seems a little harsh because he's not fully accepting that women can also have qualities of a man, that women should be women and men as men. But Ezimna breaks that rule and he feels that it's a blasphemy towards what he always believed in.
I wish we had more depth to Okonkwo. The best thing, in my opinion, in a book is character development, and yet we have seen very little in this book. Particularly with Okonkwo. Not that I want to see more of his angst, which just gets on my nerves, but I feel like he needs more to him. He's so...black and white, for the lack of a better term. Anything his father valued is bad/anything that makes him less of a man. Maybe being a man should be trying to see things from other people's perspective and trying to understand the bigger picture instead of letting his ego and emotions in the way.
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