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Fear In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

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Fear is powerful, a person you might see as strong could easily be brought down by the strength of fear. The life of the “fearless leader” Okonkwo, in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, is an example of what the power of fear is capable of. Okonkwo is a brave and strong leader to the fictional Nigerian tribe of Ibo. Everyone sees him as masculine and fearless to anything, but truthfully he is not exactly that. His whole life is based off the fact that he does not want to be like his father. In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, irony and static characterization are used to show that even the strongest of people can dwindle to the power of fear. Irony can be defined as an event that is deliberately contrary to one expects. Okonkwo was known by everyone across the land as a prosperous and dominant leader, …show more content…

Everyone bowed down to him without knowing that he his whole life is based and lived off of a fear that tears him down gradually throughout his lifetime. He was portrayed to the reader and to his fellow villagers as fearless,”... he [Okonkwo] was not afraid of war. He was a man of action, a man of war. Unlike his father he could stand the look of blood. In Umuofia’s latest war he was the first to bring home a human head,”(Achebe 40). Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, was a very peaceful man, and avoids the first sight of violence. Although peaceful, he was also a very decisive, untrustworthy man. The tribe of Ibo looked at Unoka as a coward, since he tricked everyone by not paying them back for anything and everything that he “borrowed”. Okonkwo saw this and swore to be an antipode of his father’s persona by counteracting any weakness that came towards him. He did not let himself get conquered by cowardice or allow people see any kind of feminine in his personality,”If you want to conquer fear, don't sit home and think

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In addition he delivered the Second Inaugural Address. President Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address was carried out on March 4, 1865 during his second appearing as President of the United States. A point that was stated in his address was slavery. He reminded everyone how slavery was the main point of the Civil War and he felt and proposed it insulted GOD. Another point was about the war.

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Okonkwo tries to fight the changes made by the Western people. Okonkwo’s response to the Western people trying to bring Western ideas into the Ibo culture are simply trying to fight back at the Western people with violence. Okonkwo is a strong and fierce leader, but throughout the story, he is challenged by the Western people and the cultural collision because Okonkwo is supposed to be the leader of Umuofia. Okonkwo is supposed to fight back for his village and not stop until he gets it done. In the story Achebe quotes, “He was a man of action, a man of war.

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690 Words | 3 Pages

In Umuofia’s latest war he was the first to bring home a human head.” . Following it in chapter two, paragraph 12, it reads, “... It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father. Even as a little boy he had resented his father’s failure and weakness…” Near the end of the book, Okonkwo is angered that his clan is too afraid to drive the Christians out, and even causes him to kill himself, as said in chapter 25, paragraph18.

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387 Words | 2 Pages

Prompt 2 Okonkwo is driven by his hatred of his father and the fear he will become like him. Okonkwo saw his father, Unoka, as a coward and is ashamed to be his son. Everything that Okonkwo does is meant to set him apart from the legacy of his father. First, this is evident in his beating of his wives and even his aggression with his children. He is trying to show his strength and ensure he is not portrayed to be like his father: powerless and incapable.

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689 Words | 3 Pages

Okonkwo's father, Unoka, was a coward and a money spender. He never took a title in his life and did not become a warrior because he feared the sight of blood. As a result, Okonkwo was ashamed of his father ever since he was a little boy, until the day of Unoka's death. When Unoka died of an abominable illness he was taken to the Evil Forest to rot, making Okonkwo more ashamed of his father. Okonkwo's biggest fear was to become weak like his father.

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924 Words | 4 Pages

At first, Okonkwo was very set in his ways, and determined to appear manly and powerful to his clansmen, and this came into play when the white people entered into Umuofia, as he tried to fight back. Finally, when he did not get the results he was hoping for, he resorted to killing himself, displaying that stubbornness towards colliding cultures leads to violence and destruction. Overall, when two cultures collide, they can either both accept each other, leading to peace and prosperity, or try to claim superiority over the other, which results, most commonly, in destruction. Unfortunately, Things fall apart ended in the latter, but the other is possible for those with an open mind and a flexible

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Hence, Okonkwo needs to work extremely hard to get a title and land. This also creates a fear of weakness that became indelibly built in his heart. He does not want to follow in his father’s footsteps, so he becomes driven to be strong and masculine. However, Okonkwo’s fear of being weak and womanly, becomes his ultimate downfall, for it not only affects his relationship with his family, but it will also contribute to his death. Okonkwo's fear of showing weakness undermines his relationship with his sons.

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Many of his other problems come from his children and wives. The changes of the missionaries brought okonkwo great anger. Okonkwo's feared becoming like his father. Unoka Okonkwo's father was lazy, improvident and was quite incapable of thinking about tomorrow (Achebe, pg #4). Unoka was a very irresponsible man he owed every neighbor some money, from a few cowries to a massive amount.

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786 Words | 4 Pages

Okonkwo devotes his life to becoming the opposite of his unsuccessful father. This need to become masculine introduces his fear: “But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of

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1359 Words | 6 Pages

Okonkwo’s machete descended twice and the man’s head lay beside his uniformed body. The waiting backcloth jumped into tumultuous life and the meeting was stopped. 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.

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1119 Words | 5 Pages

" Okonkwo was too proud to have stayed home and done the ethical thing. Okonkwo's pride is displayed throughout the entire book with his constant focus on strength and his fear of being thought of as a coward. Going from the beginning to the end, in chapter 24 Okonkwo kills a head messenger during a meeting. " He knew that Umuofia would not got to war.

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1330 Words | 6 Pages

The inability for Okonkwo to be weak makes him solely cruel and with a weak father like Unoka he felt forced to adapt opposite ideals. Chinua Achebe shows how Okonkwo had to make a life for himself as his father had not allowed for many opportunities for him to come in play. Later the author of the article, Psychology & Behavioral Health Vol.2 the author talks about the motivation that it takes to overcome and cope with the fears that prohibit him from growing and being he optimal version of himself. Fight or flight is described as a physiological

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769 Words | 4 Pages

Okonkwo In literature, there are many characters that stand out and show that they have a variety of qualities about them. In Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo is one character that presents character traits from both the negative and positive sides of him. Okonkwo is portrayed to be a warrior who wanted to become somebody strong and looked up to, but also possesses less favorable qualities. He, however, does not let any one trait dictate his whole personality; he is written to be a well-rounded character.

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1890 Words | 8 Pages

Okonkwo uses these traits to differentiate from Unoka and he even feels most like himself when he exhibits violent behavior in order to assert his power and authority over others. Literary critic Christopher Ouma affirmed Okonkwo’s genuine intention to change how he is regarded in society.

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1297 Words | 6 Pages

“He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat”, Napoleon. In the novel, Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo is a man with great success. However under the facade of a noble man lies an underlying fear of becoming his father. A failure. So, he will do anything to avoid that fate.

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