Views of Chinua Achebe and Kar

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             Marxism, as an economic theory, is also concerned with capital. In Igbo culture capital was not measured in dollars but in yams and cowries. Material possessions aside from land were scarce, but there were possessions of a different kind. And it was these possessions, such as wives, children, and most importantly titles, that gave men status in society. Those unable or unwilling to conform to society in gaining possessions were cast out, and seen as failures. One such man was Okonkwo's father, Unoka, who "had taken no title at all and he was heavily in debt" up until he died. It was this sort of man who Okonkwo swore never to become. "Okonkwo was ruled by one passion - to hate everything that his father Unoka had loved. One of those things was gentleness and another was idleness". .
             Because it valued strength and violence, Igbo culture defined Okonkwo's person. He was an accomplished warrior, winning distinction not only in wrestling but also on the battlefield. Like Odysseus, he personified all the virtues his culture admired. He "ruled his household with a heavy hand" and he had a fiery temper. Achebe writes that "Okonkwo never showed any emotion openly, unless it was the emotion of anger. To show affection was a sign of weakness; the only thing worth demonstrating was strength." This reveals much about Okonkwo and his culture, how its virtue of strength was set above and beyond everything else. But however respectable strength was in Okonkwo's character, carried to an extreme, the virtue became a flaw. At a crucial point in the story when the Oracle orders Ikemefuna, Okonkwo's adopted son, to be killed, Okonkwo's friend Obierika urges him not to take part in the killing. But because he is afraid of seeming weak to his fellow tribesmen, Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna and then is haunted by grief for days after it happened. He asks himself, "How can a man who has killed five men in battle fall to pieces because he has added a boy to their number?" By presenting Okonkwo's emotional side Achebe is reminding us that Okonkwo is only human, even if humanity isn't a virtue of his culture.