Things Fall Apart: Fear

Fear is a common human emotion, but the way some people react is different than others. Although, it is harder on some humans unlike other people. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said,” Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.” I think that means that fear harms more people than anything else does in the whole world. Also that people can scare themselves way easier than normal and it’s not healthy.

Everybody has a different perspective on fear and everybody is affected differently. The Mental Health Foundation stated that, “Fear can last for a short time and then pass but it can also last much longer and stay with us. In some cases it can take over our lives, affecting appetite, sleep, and concentration for long periods of time. Fear stops us from travelling, going to work or school, or even leaving the house.” This quote shows that fear does not affect people as much as it does to others. Although, fear can affect people for a long time which can cause them to stay isolated from others. There are many types of fears and some examples of fears include: the fear of the number 13, the fear of spiders, the fear of heights, and many others. There are hundreds of fears and many people have these fears and everybody is affected differently.

In the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, it carries a very common theme; fear is destructive and can provoke the most daunting actions. Okonkwo and his village went through a bunch of disasters and events because they feared a lot of stuff. Okonkwo was driven to madness by fear and most of his actions were driven by fear.

Fear is an emotional response caused by a threat, which causes a change in the brain and organ function, as well as behavior. It is

Fear is a powerful human emotion. It can make you do things you wouldn’t normally do, like risk taking and bad choices. Fear can spike your adrenaline. For example if someone was to lift a car off a run over child, that would be caused by adrenaline, which is caused by fear. According to several studies done by physicians

Fear can control a lot of things, and can make people do some things they wouldn’t normally think about. It can pull people together, or push them apart. In Lord of the Flies it pushes the boys apart. But in The Village it pulls them together. In both cases, the fear wasn’t real. The beast from LOTF and “those they don’t speak of” in The Village. Fear plays a big role in both of these. I believe fear is an easy thing to overuse and control people with, in LOTF and The Village they use fear as a way of power and controlment.

“…His [Okonkwo’s] whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness…It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father” (13).

Fear can change people in many ways. Three of them are by making people afraid of change, by making them avoid possible death, and also by staying away from what they fear.

Its very sad to say that Fear is one of the most effect thing in a person mind set. In a world full of humans maybe about 8.5 of humans out of 10 people are terrified. It may not seem

Fear is a major component of everyone's life. It’s an emotional response to something we might find dangerous or life-threatening. Fear is a survival instinct that helps us decide to either flee, hide, or fight during different situations or problems in our life. Without fear we would always be in dangerous situations and risk our lives. Having fear can show how much someone means to you for example in “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy, the man fears losing his boy and he will do anything to keep him safe.

Okonkwo strives all of his life to become a stronger, more powerful, and a successful individual. He wants to do this because his father was a slack and lazy person who lived most of his life in debt and had no titles to his name. People often looked at his father as a women figure for the few achievements he redeemed. Okonkwo never wanted to be like his father and it eventually got to the point where he became fearful of becoming like him. Achebe uses the power of fear as a theme of to show how much it can devastate one’s

Fear is a very powerful thing. It can be used to manipulate, or in other words shape the identities of others. Someone who used this ability to his advantage was Marshall Herf Applewhite.Marshall Herf Applewhite utilized fear to shape the identities of his followers by forcing belief under false pretences, forcing a way of life, and forcing suicide.

Fear is an emotional response made by a threat, which causes a change in brain and organ function, as well as behavior. It is an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that something or someone is dangerous and likely to cause paint or threat. Usually fear is caused by something traumatizing that has happened in one’s life. In order to overcome fear, you have to face it. Avoiding fear prevents people from moving forward and standing up to fearful things help move past that fear. (Towey)

Another cause for people having fear is the past experiences they have had. Generally, if something bad has happened to somebody, they try to forget about it and/or they try to make sure it never happens again. However, in doing so, they still have a subconscious fear that something similar to the terrible event they’ve experienced may somehow manage to happen again, especially if there are a few similarities between the past event and the current situation. For example, if a man had surgery for his heart to perform better and he nearly died, he may be very reluctant to ever have surgery to his heart or any other body part(s) again.

Fear played a big role in Things Fall Apart. Mainly fear was seen ruling Okonkwo’s life, but also a couple of the other inhabitants of Umuofia. It was seen in many situations dictating the characters’ actions. Each of the character’s actions then led up to the understanding of the theme in Things Fall Apart, fear can dictate choices.