He is not the type of man to question any of the laws and traditions of a clan that has done so much for him. In fact, he accepts them automatically. Yet after Ikemefuna's killing, he is greatly affected and goes into a depression where he "did not taste food for two days and did not sleep at night." This is not something that the Okonkwo of the first few pages, the fearless warrior, would have done. More importantly, he asks himself "how can a man who has killed five men in battle fall to pieces because he has added a boy to their number?" His realization that he has fallen to pieces is a significant event because it is the first time that Okonkwo's stoic mask has collapsed, and he has been unable to ignore his emotions. True, he thought himself a "shivering old woman" for it, but it was the beginning of a deeper change.
Another event that provoked Okonkwo to grow and change as a person was his accidental shooting of a kinsman, the respected Ezeudu's son, at Ezeudu's funeral. This was the gravest crime that could be committed because it went against the deep ties of the community, and was punishable with seven years of banishment, even though it was accidental. He is banished to his motherland, where he is an agbala, once again without a title, like his father was. Okonkwo's status, which has always been of the highest importance due to his father's lack of a title, was in a second reduced to nothing. This was by far the worst thing that had ever happened to him, with his possessions and position in the community all crumbling in one fell swoop. Yet this causes a paradigm shift in his mind. Always, he had equated those material belongings and his ability to provide with his manliness; he had also considered himself the master of his chi, with an inflexible will strong enough to change the course of his destiny. Now that all was gone, so was his theory that he had any control over his fate.
