Mother Is Supreme

Luke Beckman
Blog

I think that Okonkwo refuses to accept the proverb because he is so self centered. He takes in only the things that he can do himself, or that he is capable of. He is not capable of motherly care/love, and so does not understand why it is so important. One of the ways he refuses to acknowledge these virtues is that he is able to remorselessly beat his wife and children. He does not care that he is hurting them, and never really expresses guilt in the book. Another way that he does not acknowledge these virtues is that he thinks that anybody how shows affection is weak. Because of this, he does not think his son is very manly because he shows care and affection to others. This one sidedness creates many problems in his life. For starts, near the beginning of the book, he beat his wife during peace week. He had to make a payment to the gods because he did not believe in these virtues. Another way it creates problems for him is when he accidentally kills the boy at the funeral. It was an accident, but instead of feeling sorry for the people around him, he felt sorry for himself. This made his time being banished much worse than it should have been.