In "Things Falls Apart" by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo's father, Unoka, was considered an effeminate coward by the clan's standards. While he had gentler traits and was a talented musician, these traits were not valued in men. Unoka never became a warrior, never took a title, and he was awful with money, "...In his day he was lazy and improvident and was quite incapable of thinking about tomorrow." This made Okonkwo so ashamed of his father that he does everything as he can to express his masculinity. To show that he was not weak like his father, Okonkwo quickly became an amazing fighter, gained wealthy, and married three wives. "As the elders said, if a child washed his hands he could eat with kings. Okonkwo had clearly washed his hands and so he ate with kings and elders."
