Anger In Things Fall Apart

Mark Twain, a world-famous writer, once said, “Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.” What this quote means is that anger causes more pain, either physically or emotionally, to him who is angry than to the people who he is angry at. In Things Fall Apart, the author, Chinua Achebe, tells the story of a man named Okonkwo and his group of people, the Ibo. The Ibo are a group of people with their own distinct culture and traditions. Okonkwo is a man that is very prideful, and he lets his emotions make decisions for him. Achebe shows that emotions, if you let them control you, can lead to rash decisions. In Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe uses relatable characters to show that anger can influence decision-making. In Chapter 5, Okonkwo gets angry about someone killing the banana tree, when in reality, it was still alive. His second wife had only cut a few leaves off of it to wrap some food. She told this to Okonkwo, for which he beat her. After this, Okonkwo decided to go out

“Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness (13).” In Things Fall Apart, Achebe portrays Okonkwo to be a very strong-willed, battle-loving personality. This shows that Okonkwo may not like war and battle for the violence aspect, but for the aspect of not showing fear, not backing down. “When Okonkwo heard that he (Ikemefuna) would not eat any food he came into the hut with a big stick in his hand and stood over him while he swallowed his yams, trembling. A few moments later he went behind the hut and began to vomit painfully (27-28).” This quote from the book shows that Okonkwo’s whole life is based around fear. He forces his kids to eat by threatening them with a big