Our world is believed to have been curated on a patriarchal system which is always lauded for its supposed immeasurable achievements. We see this play out in the story in a very profound way. Okwonkwo’s character was masculine as it could get. He was boisterous and that in many ways made him a warrior in his own eyes and in the eyes of the Umuofia society. The traditional societal setting was very patriarchal which socialised men into uploading certain standards of masculinity. Oknwokow was a champion of the structure. We can see this in our recent world in certain phrases we use like “this is a man’s world,” and “a macho man.” Any deviation from the set masculine standard risked the male child being vilified and obstructed in the society. This played out in the life of Okwonkwo’s only son, Nwoye. Nwoye appeared not to conform to the traditional gender roles, much to the chagrin of Okonkwo. He, as a result abused his son and had wished his daughter, Ezinma, was a boy. Okwonkwo’s sense of self was so steeped in his masculinity that it led him to do several other hideous things like killing Ikemefuna and the white man. His sense of masculinity had crowded his sense of self to an extent where he even hanged himself in the name of being “a man.”
