"Mother is Supreme"

Okonkwo profoundly ignores any "female" virtues he sees in himself. Some of these "female" virtues he could possess are showing feelings, showing compassion, wanting to help others, and being nurturing, just to name a few.Okonkwo never shows feelings because he thinks it is a sign of weakness. Him thinking this shows that he thinks women are weak. Women usually always show their feelings and it is a characteristic often associated with the female sex. Also, Okonkwo is never compassionate to anybody. He doesn't even feel an ounce of pity for his father who was not successful. His family gets his the hardest with this characteristic of Okonkwo. Nwoye has not been able to develop as a man because every thing he does he gets beat by his dad. Okonkwo will not let Nwoye show feelings or compassion because that is a "female" virtue and he thinks it is a sign of weakness. Where does Nwoye turn to when he suffers pain from his father? His mother. Most females show compassion and are nurturing. Children always turn to their mothers when they are hurt or upset. There are only rare occasions when children turn to their fathers for support and help. Okonkwo never thinks of others. He only thinks of himself and making himself stronger or better in the community. He doesn't marry wives because he wants to make their lives better or he actually has feelings for them, but he marries them to make himself look wealthier. He drags people with him on his road to power, trampling whomever he wants or can on the way there.
His personality and the way he ignores any "female" virtues in his life just cause more trouble for him in the end. For example, he beats his wife during Week of Peace because she doesn't have his dinner ready. If he were practicing his "female" virtues, he would have been happy to let her go and have some fun. But instead, he got mad because he lost control of her for one second. She didn't wait to ask him what to do, she just did it and that made Okonkwo feel weak and unimportant. So, power hungry, he beat his wife. Also, because he treated Nwoye so horrible in the past and never really connected with his real personality, Nwoye decides to convert to Christianity. Okonkwo killed Ikemefuna which just led to confusion and hurt in Nwoye. This new faith gave him something he could believe in and something that cleared things up in his mind. When Nwoye converted, Okonkwo stopped talking to him. He didn't want to seem weak by showing a sense of understanding to Nwoye. He didn't want to open up and say, "Son, if it is what makes you happy and you understand it, go for it!" If he did, he would be acting like a woman and showing his feelings.
Okonkwo thinks it is weak for men to show emotion, but in reality, other men look down on men who think women are weak. In Mbanta, the people try to make Okonkwo understand that women are just as important as men, maybe not in the working community, but at home, they share just as much, if not more, importance in the family. He thinks he is being strong when everyone else is weak, but in this community, they're not afraid to let him know that because he is ignoring any "female" virtues he might possess, he is losing some positive characteristics that might make him a better person. Okonkwo chooses to ignore all of these virtues, but I think by the end of the book, he will come to understand the importance of women and wish he shared some of the same characteristics that they have.