past-with all its imperfections-was not one long night of savagery from which the Europeans acting on God's behalf delivered them."
             OKONKWO is the central character of this novel. A strong, proud, capable man, throughout the novel he attempts to compensate for the experience of being the son of what he calls his "worthless" father-Unoka, a weak-willed, indebted, flute-playing, charming, impoverished, and irresponsible man who left Okonkwo no inheritance and achieved no titles of rank in the tribe. Okonkwo greatly prizes masculine virtues. He gains fame as a young man by defeating a famous wrestler, and has always been one of the blood-thirstiest and most successful warriors when the village went to war. Okonkwo wins a great deal of wealth by working hard and share-cropping until he can afford his own land and crops. His major flaw is his violence, short-temper, and proud inability to adapt to change. He is expelled from the village for committing a sin against the goddess of the earth, Ani-he accidentally kills a sixteen year old boy during the wild celebrations of the boy's father's funeral. As is the custom, his neighbors raze his land and he departs to his mother's village to live and farm there for seven years until his term of exile has elapsed. During his absence, however, white men encroach on the village and a missionary establishes a church and school there. Okonkwo's own son defects to the missionaries, and when he returns it is impossible to regain the noble stature that he was on his way to enjoying when he left. Okonkwo is bitterly disappointed and cannot adapt to the new conditions-he constantly encourages violence against the missionaries and the stealthily installed British administration. After a riot caused by the dishonoring of a traditional spirit-dancer by a British convert, Okonkwo is one of the men who go to the British administration to discuss the issue. He ...