Have you ever read two completely different books and felt that the characters are so much alike? This is the case with Okonkwo and Romeo who were the protagonist of their stories. Romeo is from the well respected play Romeo and Juliet and Okonkwo comes from the novel Things Fall Apart. They have their differences but are also similar in many ways and have both been through tough conditions. Throughout the book, Okonkwo is often associated with fire and seen as manly, while romeo is handsome, sensitive and often immature. Although they are very different in personalities they have been through the same situations and carry the same burden. Those similarities are getting exiled from their homeland, emotions driving them to kill people and suiciding at the end, causing them to solve the conflict of their stories.
In both stories Okonkwo and Romeo get exiled from their homeland. Romeo gets banished from his town Verona because of killing Tybalt. The prince had the decision to decide which punishment to give Romeo and Friar Lawrence states, A gentler judgment vanished from his lips: Not bodys death, but bodys banishment.(Act 3, Scene 3) Just like Romeo, Okonkwo gets banished for the same reason for killing someone, although accidental. In chapter 13 its quotes that, It was a crime against the earth goddess to kill a clansman, and a man who committed it must flee from the land. These quotes show that both Romeo and Okonkwo were banished from their homeland because of their actions.
Secondly, both Okonkwo and Romeo have been overtaken by their emotions and ended up killing people. In the play Romeo and Juliet after Mercutio is killed by Tybalt, Romeo ends up killing Tybalt. This is shown in Act 3 Scene 1 after Mercutio dies and Romeo announces to duel with Tybalt, That late thou gavest me, for Mercutios soul is but a little way above our heads, Staying for thine to keep him company. Either thou or I, or both, must go with him.
