“Looking at a king’s mouth,” said an old man, “one would think he never sucked at his mother’s breast.” He was talking about Okonkwo, who had risen so suddenly from great poverty and misfortune to be one of the lords of the clan. The old man bore no ill will towards Okonkwo. Indeed he respected him for his industry and success. But he was struck, as most people were, by Okonkwo’s brusqueness in dealing with less successful men. Only a week ago a man had contradicted him at a kindred meeting which they held to discuss the next ancestral feast. Without looking at the man Okonkwo had said: “This meeting is for men.” The man who had contradicted him had no titles. That was why he had called him a woman. Okonkwo knew how to kill a man’s spirit.

The text above provides a better picture of how Okonkwo is as a character and how he stands before other men in his tribe. We see how his brusqueness is in dealing less successful men as he was a son to not so successful man who held no title. He had to rise up from nothing to get where he stands now and he is proud of what he has accomplished. However, seeing how his father was not a good role model, who left him nothing, and was not an inspiration to become someone like him, we see how that has affected Okonkwo’s view on others who are similar to that of his father. Okonkwo values those that are successful, who hold titles, and who have a name for themselves and those who do not will be looked down upon by him and treated not as equal but of lesser man, in this case by killing the man with no titles spirit by calling him a woman in a “man’s” meeting.