Reflect on Ikemefuna’s death. You can consider any of these questions (or none of them):
1) Why does Okonkwo kill Ikemefuna? How does it make sense given his character?
2) Does Okonkwo make the right decision to kill Ikemefuna? Look through the lens of his culture, not ours.
3) Are things falling apart yet? How?
Post one comment (can be original or a reply) of about 6 sentences.
Ms Bularzik's Blog 
Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna because he does not want other people to think that he is a weak person. Okonkwo is afraid of what other people think of him. I think that he is afraid of being compared to his father. His father is weak, lazy and in debt. Okonkwo does not want to be associated with his father. I think that he wants others will view him differently than they view his father so he kills Ikemefuna.
1. Onkonkwu kills Ikemefuna because he was afraid of being looked at as weak. This makes sense because his character is supposed to be a big, strong, fearless wrestler.
2. Yes he makes the right decision because upso,ehing bad May have happened to him if he didnt sacrifice Ikemefuna.
3. Things are falling apart because Ikemefuna is now dead and mwoye is on his own
Okonkwo kills ikemefuna because he does not want to seem weak. It makes sense that Okonkwo does not want to seem weak because he thinks his father was weak and he tries to do everything his father would not. Okonkwo thought that if he had stayed in the back and watched ikemefuna be killed by the others it would be seen as a weakness.
I think things are falling apart. I think that things started to fall apart as soon as Okonkwo displeased the gods and ancestors during the week of pease. His short temper is what have things falling apart. After the death of Ikemefuna things for the family feel apart. Nwoye looked up to Ikemefuna and got really upset when his father killed his brother.
I agree Michelle. I think things are beginning to fall apart in this chapter. Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna because he doesn’t want to seem weak to others. In the beginning, Okonkwo seemed more respected and somewhat wise, but now we are seeing that his anger is truly a problem, and that he could the cause of everything falling apart.
I think Michelle has a really good point. Everything hasn’t been going that well since the incident during the Week of Peace. I think Okonkwo killed his “son” because he doesn’t want to seem weak and appear like his father. Okonkwo has lived his whole life trying not to be like his father, so he takes some pretty drastic risks. In the lens of the Ibo culture, it was the right thing to do. I think his “son” was going to die either way but Okonkwo wanted to the man to do it and come off as tough.
It seems like the only reason Okonkwo kills Ikemefuma is so he does not look weak in others eyes. Okonkwo, so desperately, wants to be the complete opposite of his father so he decides to kill Ikemefuma to show his “manliness.” I think things are falling apart very fast. Okonkwo’s only kills Ikemefuma to look more powerful and less weak, but in the beginning he wouldn’t have done something as terrible as that. I think his anger is causing too many problems for him.
I think that Okonkwo’s choice to help kill Ikemefuna was a bad one. Although he would not admit it, I think he had grown bery fond of the boy. Ikemefuna even called him Father, and looked up to him more than his biological father. I think that in killing Ikemefuna, Okonkwo sets himself up for more guilt and sadness. However, being a man of pride, he may have felt it necessary to kill him to show that he is a man, and he will do what the Gods want even if he disagrees with it.
Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna to save his pride and to show that he is a manly man. He does not want to show his emotions, which make him weak, in front of others. Although he has these emotions which make him weak, he ignores them and tries to put on a manly cover to be respected. However, hiding them leads things to fall apart in his life. He becomes depressed at his actions and realizes how ineffective his method of beating is on his male kids, who aren’t manly enough. He even realizes that his most right spirited child is his daughter, showing that women can be equal or better than men. However, he still denies any gender equality and regrets the fact that she is not a boy.
I agree Lynn. He only kills her to save himself, which may be manly in their culture, however it can be seen as cowardly in our eyes. I liked what you said about things falling apart emotionally for him. I wanted to say something like that as well. Also I found it odd when he talks about gender equality. In our culture he seems like a horrible person, but he is looked high upon by everyone else.
Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna because he doesn’t want to show any weakness around anyone. It fits into his personality because he is not one to show weakness or emotion at all. According to the his culture it was he right things to do not to show weakness. Things are starting to fall apart for Okonkwo at least. So far he broke the peace week, beat his wife because a tree was dying and killed basically his son to not look weak.
Okonkwo desperately does not want to reveal his weakness to society so he makes the decision to kill Ikemefuna. Okonkwo refuses to believe that he has any weakness like his father. Unoka can be Characterized as lazy, pathetic, and careless. I think Okonkwo did not make the right decision even though the culture dislikes the weaklings and cowards . Taking part of killing Ikemefuna will definitely impact his relationship with Nwoye.
I agree, John. Okonkwo shows his pride by killing Ikemefuna. Had he not killed him, he would have been seen as weak, and this is something that Okonkwo avoided at all costs. His father has been a huge influence on his life, and this pride complex that he seems to have definitely seems to be coming from his father, who was lazy and the laughingstock of the village. I also don’t believe the he made the right decision by killing Ikemefuna, because letting his pride get in the way of the right decision is not right. Things are indeed starting to fall apart, especially in Okonkwo’s personal life. He has killed someone that he loves, and is spiraling into depressing.
Okonkwo stayed at the end of the line so he wouldn’t have to kill Ikemefuna but Okonkwo is chosen to kill. Instead of saving a life he decides to keep his pride. He didn’t want his friends and people to see him as weak. In his peoples eyes it was the correct thing to do. He wasn’t putting his emotions first in this situation but his reputation. Okonkwo doesn’t want to drop his reputation to only end up like his dad.
I believe Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna to hold his domance amoung the people in his tribe. Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna because he is seen as the most dominant of all the characters and has a very well known reputation. Okonkwo reputation is the most important thing to him, he strives to be the complete opposite person his father was and would do anything to prove that, even kill to prove that. In my opinion Okonkwo tries so hard to be unlike his father that this may backfire, he may not be known for a lazy man who never repays back his debts but he may be known as the hothead murderer and feared by his people.
Okonkwo killed Ikemefuna because Okonkwo did not want people knowing how weak he truly is. Okonkwo is always concerned with what people think of him. The reason why he is so afraid of this because he does not want to resemble his father because his father was lazy and weak, which is why he killed Ikemefuna.
I feel like the only reason Okonkwo killed Ikemefuna was because he did not want to look weak in front of the tribal elders. Okonkwo really began to feel like Ikemefuna was part of his family, like one of his own sons. Okonkwo is seen as one of the strongest men in his village, so he did not want to seem weak by caring about someone who wasn’t even not part of his family. This makes perfect sense with his character because he likes to seem strong and tough and angry whenever he can.
Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna to show that he will follow orders to make his tribe strong. This proves Okonkwo’s loyalty to his people, and his will to make them strong. If thinking through the eyes of their culture, He made a good decision to kill Ikemefuna because the reason they took him is because of a murder of their people. From a personal standpoint, Okonkwo should not have killed him because it is a child who not only is strong and helped Okonkwo, but was strong and would have continued to help him. Also, Ikemefuna had barely lived his life and should have experienced it. Ikemefuna is not the person who murdered Okonkwo’s people, so why should he suffer. Things have not fallen apart yet because he still believes he’s doing what he can for his people.