A proud warrior's world cracks under the white man's God — and he breaks with it.
Who drives the story
A self-made wrestling champion of Umuofia who builds fame and wealth from nothing because he is terrified of resembling his lazy father. His fear of weakness makes him violent — and it destroys him.
Okonkwo's father: a debtor who loved his flute and palm wine, died of a swelling illness, and was buried in the Evil Forest. He is the shadow Okonkwo spends his whole life fleeing.
Okonkwo's eldest son, scolded for showing his grandfather's womanish traits. Drawn to the missionaries by a hymn that reminds him of Ikemefuna, he leaves his father's house for the missionary school.
Ekwefi's only surviving child and Okonkwo's favorite, a girl he constantly wishes were a boy. She is the tenderness his hardness cannot quite kill.
Okonkwo's closest friend, thoughtful where Okonkwo is impulsive, questioning the traditions Okonkwo obeys. He sells Okonkwo's yams in exile and leads the District Commissioner to his body.
A boy of about fifteen given to Umuofia as compensation, who calls Okonkwo father for three years. The Oracle orders his death, and Okonkwo cuts him down.
A Christian convert who kills the sacred royal python and later unmasks an egwugwu — the sacrilege that triggers the burning of the church.
Also in the story
Okonkwo's second wife, who fell for him the day he threw Amalinze the Cat and ran away from her first husband to marry him. She lost nine of her ten children in infancy before Ezinma survived.
Okonkwo's mother's kinsman in Mbanta, who gives him land and huts and rebukes his despair: 'Mother is Supreme.'
The first white missionary in Umuofia, respected for his restraint; he talks religion with the elder Akunna and builds a school and hospital before illness sends him away.
Mr. Brown's successor, rigid and intolerant of Igbo customs, who does not restrain overzealous converts like Enoch. Under him, the church and the clan collide.
The colonial administrator who imprisons Okonkwo and five leaders, then finds Okonkwo hanged. He ends the novel planning a book called The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger.
How they are connected
Okonkwo's father: a debtor who loved his flute and palm wine, died of a swelling illness, and was buried in the Evil Forest.
Okonkwo's eldest son, scolded for showing his grandfather's womanish traits.
Drawn to the missionaries by a hymn that reminds him of Ikemefuna, he leaves his father's house for the missionary school.
Ekwefi's only surviving child and Okonkwo's favorite, a girl he constantly wishes were a boy.
Ekwefi's only surviving child and Okonkwo's favorite, a girl he constantly wishes were a boy.
Okonkwo's second wife, who fell for him the day he threw Amalinze the Cat and ran away from her first husband to marry him.
Okonkwo's closest friend, thoughtful where Okonkwo is impulsive, questioning the traditions Okonkwo obeys.
ObierikaThe District Commissioner
He sells Okonkwo's yams in exile and leads the District Commissioner to his body.
A boy of about fifteen given to Umuofia as compensation, who calls Okonkwo father for three years.
Okonkwo's mother's kinsman in Mbanta, who gives him land and huts and rebukes his despair: 'Mother is Supreme.
Brown's successor, rigid and intolerant of Igbo customs, who does not restrain overzealous converts like Enoch.
Brown's successor, rigid and intolerant of Igbo customs, who does not restrain overzealous converts like Enoch.
Go deeper
Masculinity as a trap · The dignity of a world before the fall · Two inflexibilities collide · Who tells the story
Themes explainedThe full story act by act, the ending explained and a quick quiz.
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