Fear In Things Fall Apart

He is failing to overpower his fear of weakness. Okonkwo is apprehensive of looking weak like his father. “Okonkwo’s fear was greater than these. It was external but lay deep within himself. It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father” (Achebe, 13). As a result, he behaves frantically; bringing much trouble and sorrow upon himself as well as his

In the novel, Things Fall Apart, written by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo is a sympathetic character and unsympathetic character in regards to his family relationships with his adopted son, Ikemefuna, his daughter, Ezima, and his father, Unoka, as a result of he appears to genuinely care about his family; but, the pride within himself prevents his expression of such pride and concern openly.

In things fall apart Okonkwo had the fear of becoming his father who was lazy and unsuccessful. Okonkwo didn’t give up when he didn’t inherit seeds from his father to start his farm. Instead, he begged Nwakibie for seeds and started his own farm from the ground up. Okonkwo could have let his fear turn him into a lazy unsuccessful person but in lieu of his fear he didn’t let it impact his working life in a negative way. He decided to be proactive and to get things done on his own, further proving that he was determined to be a great farmer, unlike his father.

Okonkwo wrestles with his fear that any sign of weakness will cause him to lose control of his family, position in the village, and even himself. Like many heroes of classical tragedy, Okonkwo’s tragic flaw, fear, also makes him excessively proud. Okonkwo’s downfall is a result of the changes created by the coming of the British Colonisers to Igbo. The introduction of the Colonisers into the novel causes Okonkwo’s tragic flaw to be exacerbated. Okonkwo construes change as weakness, and as a result of his interpretation, Okonkwo only knows how to react to change through anger and strength. He derives great satisfaction, “hubris” or proud arrogance, from the fact that he is a traditional, self made man and thinks that to change would mean submitting to an outside force (Christianity).

Okonkwo's fear of being perceived as weak tragically leads to him to be unnecessarily violent and excessively prideful. These two fatal flaws lead to Okonkwo’s own emotional isolation, and his inevitable downfall. Driven by the fear of being seen as weak and emasculated, Okonkwo exhibits hyper masculinity and rage. Although this behavior initially leads to success in the patriarchal society of Umofia, rage is his greatest bane: it masks his compassion and pusillanimity. Onkonkwo’s obsession to never appear feminine is driven to the extreme. He denies affection even to his own family, “never show[ing] any emotion openly, unless it be the emotion of anger. To [Okonkwo] show[ing] affection was a sign of weakness; the only thing worth demonstrating was strength.” (pg. 28). Okonkwo whose “whole life [is] dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness.” (pg. 13) suppress his compassion in order to appear important and manly. Ironically this creates a stark juxtaposition between his own fear and his position as an alpha male. Rather than being masculine and courageous, Okonkwo just creates tension within his family and within himself. The pinnacle of this extreme hypermasculinity is when Okonkwo ignores the wisdom of the elder Ezeudu, and violently kills his “son” Ikamafuna: “As the man who had cleared his throat drew up and raised his machete, Okonkwo looked away. He had heard Ikamafuna cry “My father, they have killed me!”

The character of Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart was driven by fear, a fear of change and losing his self-worth. He needed the village of Umuofia, his home, to remain untouched by time and progress because its system and structure were the measures by which he assigned worth and meaning in his own life. Okonkwo required this external order because of his childhood and a strained relationship with his father, which was also the root of his fears and subsequent drive for success. When the structure of Umuofia changed, as happens in society, Okonkwo was unable to adapt his methods of self-evaluation and ways of functioning in the world; the life he was determined to live could not survive a new environment and collapsed around

This shows how destructive fear can be and easily it can tear people apart. Okonkwo was utterly destroyed by all the fear and confusion that’s been building up in himself and he couldn’t take it anymore. Fear also affected other people’s lives in Things Fall Apart but not as badly as

Okonkwo’s fear of unmanliness is kindled by his father, who was a lazy, unaccomplished man. Okonkwo strives to have a high status from a young age and eventually achieves it. He has a large family, many yams and is well known throughout the village for his valor. He

Okonkwo may try to act “manly” and strong when in the presence of others, but Okonkwo does possess sentimental emotions that he claims to view as weak which make up an

For all of his desire to be strong, Okonkwo is caught up by the constant fear of being perceived as weak. He is afraid of failure and afraid of being considered weak. This fear drives him to do whatever he can to not become a failure like his father which ironically contributes to his death. While Okonkwo was a strong and important figure in his tribe, he had to keep his reputation that way by making some hard decisions. One of them was when he had to kill Ikemefuna, a young boy from the neighboring tribe. Okonkwo started accepting the decision to kill Ikemefuna because he started to call Okonkwo father. He had to keep his own valor intact and kill the boy to prevent himself from showing any weakness, but deep down, Okonkwo was really upset because of what he did which was ironic, “’When did you become a shivering old woman,' Okonkwo asked himself, 'you, who are known in all the nine villages for your valor in war? How can a man who has killed five men in battle fall to pieces because he has added a boy to their number? Okonkwo, you have become a woman indeed.'" (Achebe 65). He continued to roll downhill when the white man comes to try and convert Okonkwo’s tribe. Okonkwo responds by killing one of the messengers that were sent. This cause Okonkwo's own tribe to question his actions. “"Okonkwo stood looking at the dead man. He knew that Umuofia would not go to war. He knew because they had let the other messengers escape.

In the novel Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo is portrayed as a respected and determined individual whose fatal flaw eventually works against him. Throughout the novel the readers are shown that Okonkwo has many of these Characteristics because he is obsessed with the idea of becoming just like his father. This becomes his flaw in the novel that puts him into exile and makes it hard for him to adjust to the changes that were made with in his village.

Fear could appeal to many aspects such as fear of one’s self, fear of another being, or fear of failure. Even the most ruthless and short-tempered characters contain a fear. Okonkwo’s fear, though he may seem unbreakable, is losing the opportunity to become leader of his tribe by being seen as weak or unmasculine. Okonkwo’s tribe is sent a boy, Ikemefuna, as redemption after a woman from Okonkwo’s tribe is killed in Ikemefuna’s village. Ikemefuna is given to Okonkwo to live so the elders of the tribe determine what to do with their new addition to the tribe. Okonkwo takes Ikemefuna in and trains him like he would his own son, harshly and unsympathetic. Gradually, Okonkwo begins to like Ikemefuna and grow fond of him once Ikemefuna becomes closer to Okonkwo’s son, Nwoye, while exploiting a masculine effect on his adoptive brother. It comes time for Ikemefuna’s fate to unravel and Okonkwo learns that the boy will be killed. Fear of showing emotion, Okonkwo, while disobeying a friend, follows the tribe into the forest and kills Ikemefuna. Okonkwo is shattered on the inside, yet chooses to hide these emotions for fear of showing weakness. When Okonkwo hides these emotions, “he would use his fists” to relinquish his anger (Achebe 4). The resentment and grief of killing Ikemefuna drives Okonkwo to do inhumane things like killing a clansman which results in Okonkwo’s exile from the

"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." (H. P. Lovecraft) In Chinua Achebe's novel "Things Fall Apart" the theme of fear is constant and persistent. It is shown through a great and respected warrior named Okonkwo. While he is wealthy, with many wives, and some high titles within his clan he is still plagued with his fear. He fears the unknown,

Okonkwo shows throughout the book Things Fall Apart that he fears weakness and failure. Often times he also shows that he is bitter and gets angry easily. This bitterness and fear leads to some consequence such as exile and death. After several encounters with failure Okonkwo realizes his weak points and gains sympathy from that. There are ways that Okonkwo shows theses things throughout the book and evidence that makes them true.

The acknowledgement of the innate fear inside of Okonkwo proves that the fear is present, which drives his other actions. His fear, because it is a great and internal fear consumes him and causes him to commit acts based upon that anxiety. His fear of being weak, of resembling his father, causes him to worry excessively about being viewed as strong and causes him to be aggressive and violent, both of which are very involved in his downfall. His fear does not directly cause his descent, but it is the force that drives his actions and his character, which are the direct origins of his downfall. His fear of a semblance between himself and his father proves that fear can consume a person if unchecked. Okonkwo allowed the fear of becoming his father