Compare and contrast Okonkwo and his father in Things Fall Apart.

Okonkwo and his father Unoka have very little in common.  Although both are tall men, Unoka walks with a stoop, burdened by the scorn of his tribe.  The Igbo people value power and ferocity in their men, and Unoka is not like that.  Sensitive by nature, he appreciates music, children, and the beauty of nature.  Unoka is happiest when he is playing his flute and drinking palm wine, enjoying the company of his neighbors.  He abhors warfare and is sickened by violence, and is totally lacking in ambition.  Preferring to spend his days fellowshipping and making music, he neglects his crops and must borrow to feed his family.  Unoka is considered weak by his tribe, and is scorned for his lack of perceived "manly" qualities.

Okonkwo is the opposite of his father.  His very appearance communicates a sense of ferocity and barely contained fury.  He is tightly wound and has a fiery temper, and rules his family with an iron hand.  Okonkwo has distinguished himself on the field of battle, and is considered by his tribe to be the "greatest warrior alive".  An extremely proud man, he constantly strives to demonstrate his power and manhood, both in tests of strength among his own people and against his enemies in combat.

Ironically, despite his dominant demeanor, Okonkwo is more emotionaly fragile than his father.  The younger man lives in perpetual fear that he has somewhere within himself the traits he so hates in his progenitor, and his lust for manly achievement reflects his inner terror that he might, in reality, have inherited his father's weaknesses.  Thus, Okonkwo overcompensates to the point that he becomes less than complete.  Hating idleness and sensitivity of any sort, he never allows himself to show love or compassion towards anyone, not even to those family members closest to him, and he cannot tolerate these traits in others either.

Compare and contrast the characteristics of Gatsby and Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart.

Both Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart and Jay Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby have the ambition to become great men, and while that means different things in their varying cultures, their ambitions eventually bring both of them to a sad end. Let's look at each character in more detail to help you get started in on this assignment.

Okonkwo is the son of a debtor, and this embarrasses him tremendously. He vows that he will become a great man some day. He works hard, and he actually does so. Okonkwo becomes a wealthy, upper-class man. But Okonkwo's pride soon catches up with him, and he begins to act in ways that are immoral and truly horrible, even killing his foster son so as not to appear weak. Okonkwo has become focused on appearances. Eventually, though, he is banished for accidentally killing a neighbor.

By the time Okonkwo returns to his village, the Christian missionaries have arrived, and Okonkwo leads some others in burning a church. Okonkwo ends up killing himself, an act that is abhorrent to his people. He has fallen a long way from his status as a great man.

Gatsby, too, has ambitions. After growing up on a Midwestern farm, he vows that he will rise out of poverty and become extremely wealthy. Along the way, Gatsby falls in love with Daisy but loses her to Tom. Gatsby works hard and does become a wealthy man who is caught up in appearances with his big mansion and fancy parties. But inside, Gatsby is still pining for Daisy, never sure that she will really be his even as they carry on their affair.

Gatsby descends into a life of immorality with his adultery with Daisy and his shady business dealings. Eventually he comes to a sad end at the hands of George Wilson, who thinks that Gatsby killed Myrtle in a hit-and-run. Gatsby is not guilty, but he shields Daisy, who was actually driving. All his wealth has not kept him from disaster.