Compare and contrast Okonkwo and Unoka

Table of Content

We can see from Unhooks memory: He would remember his own childhood, how he had often wandered around looking for a kite sailing leisurely, as soon as he found one he would sing with his whole being, welcoming it back from its long, long journey. The words wandered, sailing leisurely, sing and welcoming show us that Knock has a happy and carefree childhood. He has much free time and does not have to worry about anything. On the other hand, at a very early age when Awoken was striving desperately to build a barn through share-cropping, he was also fending for his fathers house.

The words very early, striving desperately, fending for shove that Awoken has to work when he is very young, when the others are living an easy life, he has to take care of his parents and his siblings in desperate. The difference in the childhood had led Awoken and Knock into possessing different backgrounds. Although having a comfortable childhood, Knock becomes a failure. According to the Gobos culture, a successful man has to have titles and many wives and barns full of yams. Throughout the story, we see that he only has one wife and when Knock died he had taken no title at all and he was heavily n debt.

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Moreover, He was poor and his wife and children had barely enough to eat, which implied Knock is incapable of taking care of his family, the task considered the most important for the father of a family. Because of his failure, Knock is not respected by anyone, even his sons friend called him governmentally, though Awoken starts with his bare hand Awoken does not have the start in life which many young men usually have, he inherits neither a barn nor a title, nor even a young wife, he has achieved great success.

Since his father is a failure, he does not leave him anything but Awoken was a wealthy farmer and had two barns full of yams, and had just married his third wife. To crown it all he had taken two titles and had shown incredible prowess in two inter-tribal wars. Awoken has all it takes to be a successful man: two barns full of yams, three wives, and two titles. Awoken is considered the greatest warrior and is respected by the whole clan. Awoken was chosen by the nine villages to carry a message of war to their enemies and they treated him like a King.

In the wrestling match, Awoken is among the elders and grandees although he is young. The reason for the success and the failure of the two people is due to the different in their personality when they grow up. Having an easy childhood makes Knock become lazy. In his day, he was lazy and improvident and was quite incapable of thinking about tomorrow. This shows that Knock does not care about the future; he just wants to enjoy his happy day. When he goes to consult the Oracle, the priestess has told him:You, Knock, are known in all the clan for the weakness of your matched and you hoe.

When your neighbors go out with their axe to cut down virgin forests, you sow your yams on exhausted farms that take no labor to clear; you stay at home and offer sacrifices to a reluctant soil. Go home and work like a man The words exhausted farms, no labor and reluctant soil indicate that Knock is indolent. He does not try to offer better conditions for his farm. He just works as if he is forced to do so. Moreover, the phrase Go home and work like a man and weakness of your matcher and your hoe implies Knock is lazy and he does not have enough strength to grow yams, the king of crops.

Awoken, on the contrary, has to work hard since childhood. During the landing season Awoken worked daily on his farms from jack-crow until the chickens went to roost. This shows that he works with enthusiastic and he hardly becomes exhausted. He had told Nagasaki: am not afraid of work and he really does. Awoken had begun to sow with the first rains; he watched the sky all day for signs of rain-clouds and lay wake all night; he had tried to protect them by making rings of thick sisal leaves and he changed them every day and prayed. All day, all night and everyday shows his determination and perseverance in order to save the yams.

In addition, when it is the Feast of he New Yam, it says that he was always uncomfortable sitting around for days waiting for a feast or getting over it, he would be much happier working on his farm. This proves his joy to work. Although knock is being lazy, he still has something that Awoken does not have, gentleness, a feminine trait that Awoken hates. This can be seen from his despite war. Knock was never happy when it came to wars. He was in fact a coward and could not bear the sight of blood. We can see that he is a gentle man as he hate to see blood, because when there is blood there must be injured people.

He cannot be happy about wars because they bring death to the clan. Another piece of evidence for his gentleness is that he consoles Awoken. Knock said: Do not despair. Know you will not despair. You have a manly and a proud heart. A proud heart can survive a general failure because such a failure does not prick its pride. Knock knows Awoken has a proud and manly heart, which cannot bear the failure easily, so he tries to make him feel better. However, Awoken does not appreciate his gentle courage. Despite the fact that deep inside him, Awoken is gentle but outwardly, he is violent.

He is not afraid of war and he can stand the sight of blood. In Osmosis latest war he was the first to bring home a human head. That was his fifth head; and he was not an old man yet. The fifth human head indicates he has already killed five men, showing his prowess in war and fighting. Awoken ruled his household with a heavy hand, suggests forcefulness, and physical control he has over his family. For instance, when his youngest wife fails to cook dinner for him because she comes to a friends house to plait her hair, Awoken beats her very heavily.

The other evidence is the author always sees words like thundered, roared, threatened, shouted and so on to shows Convokes bad-temper and violence and the fear with which Awoken uses to rule his household. However, we notice that sometimes Awoken is caring just like his father. This is shown when Kefir goes to Schnooks Obi and tells him Eczema is in danger. Awoken sprang from his bed, pushed back the bolt on his door and ran into Ossifies hut. Sprang suggests that he gets out of the bed immediately, ran shows that he wants to get there as fast as possible, which imply his worry for Eczema.

He is gentle because he tells Shameful that he is going mom, in which the real reason is that he is about to be killed and before that Awoken sat still for a very long time supporting his chin in his palms. The sentence indicates he has to reconsider many times how to break this news to Shameful. The other clue for Schnooks gentleness is when Kefir follows the priestess, he has gone with his matched to the shrine. It was only on his fourth trip that he had found Kefir, and by then he had become gravely worried.

His fourth trip and gravely worried show he has gone to find Kefir four times, which suggests his great anxiety and care for Kefir. From the similarity, we can see that both Awoken and knock have passion for something. knock loves almost everything. He loves music. Knock would play with the village musicians, his face beaming with blessedness and peace. Beaming with blessedness and peace, reveals his passion for music, Knock is content and calm when it comes to music. Knock loved the good fare and the good fellowship, and he loved this season Of the year, when the rains had stopped and the sun rose every morning with dazzling beauty.

He loved the first kite that returned with the dry season, and the children who sang songs of alcove to them. This illustrates his love for good things and peace as well as his carefree and easy-going life. Awoken is also fond of a few things. He is enthusiastic when it comes to wrestling. Awoken cleared his throat and moved his feet to the beat of the drums. It filled him with fire as it had always done from his youth. He trembled with the desire to conquer and subdue. It was like the desire for woman. The words fire, desire, trembled prove he is overwhelmed with the thinking of wrestling.

When the match becomes thrilling, Awoken sprang to his feet and quickly sat down again. This shows he is energetic and devoted etc the match. Awoken is also fond of Shameful and Eczema, though his fondness only showed on very rare occasions. This implies the difference between Awoken and his father. Knock expresses his feeling openly, but Awoken only shows it rarely. Having different childhood, different background, different personality, nevertheless, Awoken and Knock result in having one thing in common which is they are both bad father although in different ways.

Awoken did not have the start in life which many young men usually had. He did not inherit a barn from his father. He neither inherited a barn nor a title, nor even a young wife indicates Unhooks failure to provide for his family and give Awoken some inheritance which other young men should have show his irresponsibility. However, Knock is a good father when he encourages Awoken to get over difficulties which I have elaborated above. On the other hand, Awoken is a responsible father. He works hard in order to provide the best for his family. Although he is violent, Awoken has said I am worried about Envoys.

A bowl Of pounded yams can throw him in a wrestling match. His two younger brothers are more promising. This implies his worry for the future of his sons, though it also shows his fear of his son become a failure like his father. Nonetheless, it is this fear that makes Awoken a bad father. When he thinks he see the incipient laziness in his son, Annoy, he sought to correct his son by constant nagging and bearing; when he see Annoy likes women’s stories, he rebuked him and beat him. The words nagging, bearing, rebuked and beat points out that he wants to destroy all the feminine traits in Annoy.

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