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During the week of peace, Okonkwo beats his wife because she did not cook dinner. Although it was not unusual for men to beat their wives at the time, Okonkwo’s actions were frowned upon by members of his own village. They were ashamed of his behavior. This is a turning point in the story because it's where I realized that Okonkwo allows his fear of being perceived as weak dominate his life so much so that as a result he can’t control his emotions nor his violent, irrational behavior.

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I noticed that Okonkwo treats his son, Nwoye, very harshly. Some people may perceive this as him being mean, but I believe he was only doing what he thought was right according to the definition of success in their society. He pushed Nwoye because he wanted him to be successful and so that he would not end up like his father. The way he treats Nwoye comes across as harsh, but it was the only way Okonkwo knew how to express his emotions.

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“‘When did you become a shivering old woman,’ Okonkwo asked himself, ‘you, who are known in all the nine villages for your valor in war? How can a man who has killed five men in battle fall to pieces because he has added a boy to their number? Okonkwo, you have become a woman indeed’” (Achebe 65). This quote in particular from Chapter 8 made me angry because Okonkwo is equating being a women to being weak. There are many other instances that I have encountered thus far in the novel of Okonkwo referring to women as less than men as well as instances where he treats his wives poorly with very little respect. Sexism was deeply rooted in the Igbo culture since they lived in a patriarchal society. It was normalized in Africa at the time and unfortunately is still prevalent in modern day African society.

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I was shocked when Okonkwo killed Ikmefuna. I could not believe that he was capable of doing something so cruel for his own benefit, especially since he was like a son to Okonkwo, and Ikmefuna considered Okonkwo to be his father. I can’t fathom the idea of a father killing his own son for the sake of being perceived as "strong" and "manly". I know that Okonkwo is going to regret killing Ikmefuna because it was something he did in the moment when his vision was clouded with the fear of being viewed as weak.

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When Okonkwo returns after his 7 year exile, his village is flooded with Christian missionaries. This is yet another conflict Okonkwo has to face. At this point in the novel, he has already struggled so much and faced a great deal of conflict--his greatest conflict being an internal struggle. Now he faces the external conflict of preserving his culture. In chapter 22, Okonkwo and the other Egwugwus burn down the missionaries' church in their best efforts to get rid of them because they are a threat to their culture. Again, he resorts to violence to deal with the situation, but I could have predicted that based on his previous actions.

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Some may say that Okonkwo was a bad man, but I do not agree with this statement. However, I do agree that he isn’t a very likeable character. Although he exhibited harsh and violent behavior throughout the story, I do not believe he had evil intent, but rather his insecurity of being like his father was so deeply rooted in him that it took complete control over his actions. I believe that Okonkwo did not have an evil heart because there were times throughout the story when we saw Okonkwo’s true character. Rarely, he showed that he truly loved and cared for his family.

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It's easy to see that the changes that are happening in Okonkwo's village deeply affect him. I can sympathize with him because I see how it must have been extremely difficult for him to see his culture being destroyed right in front of his face by the Christian missionaries. This was another factor that lead to Okonkwo's suicide.

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Right from the start of the book we learn Okonkwo's tragic flaw: he is afraid of turning into his father. He is desperate to prove to everyone that he isn't like his father. This desperation leads him to make rash decisions throughout the novel and therefore is the root cause of his downfall.

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In Chapter 3, I learned that Okonkwo's father died from a sickness.  His death was regarded as shameful because it was not acceptable to Ani, the earth goddess, so he could not be buried properly. I find it ironic how Okonkwo wanted so badly to be nothing like his father but he ended up dying a shameful death just like his father. After he died the other villagers considered him to be an "abomination against the Earth".

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I wish that the story would have ended differently. Although Okonkwo wasn’t a very likeable character, I was rooting for him. I hoped that he would soften up and become less harsh by the end of the novel, but that was not the case. In fact, Okonkwo had almost no character development; he remained rigid in his ways through the entirety of the story. Once he killed Ikmefuna, everything went downhill and his life fell apart. At that point, I knew there was no way that Okonkwo would have a happy ending because the killing of Ikemefuna was the main catalyst for his downfall.

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I find it interesting how the mother of the wife described the husband as being of a "gentle disposition", and says " I am sure he did nothing to provoke the anger of others", whereas Tajomaru describes him as being "ferocious with anger". What the old woman describes him as is the opposite of what Tajomaru describes him as. One of them must be lying. In fact, it is likely that many of the characters are lying. For example how do we know that the medium relayed to the police commissioner  information the was accurate? Did she make it all up? And what about the old woman? She claimed to be his mother, but how do we know whether this is true?

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I don’t think the author wanted to give a clear answer of who committed the crime, but rather leave it up to the interpretation of the reader. There are some things that are consistent across all testimonies, and some things that aren’t, which makes me question what is true and what isn’t. There’s no way for us to know the real truth. We can only make an assumption based on the information given. My best guess is that the husband killed himself because his confession through the medium is the only one out of the three that didn’t have small discrepancies that conflicted with the other testimonies.