Okonkwo’s Greatest Character Flaws In the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Achebe writes a lot about family relationships and customs in the Igbo Clan. There is an important man named Okonkwo in the clan who is a very powerful part of the clan who had a large family. Okonkwo would lose sight of his family over his fear of weakness and failure. This caused him to mistreat his family and have irrational reactions to things that could have been resolved. Okonkwo’s greatest character flaw is his fear of weakness and failure. Okonkwo would let his emotions control his actions regardless of the consequences, he would use his fists instead of his words getting him into more trouble then needed be. In the book Things Fall Apart Achebe states, “He had a slight stammer and whenever he was angry and could not get his words out quick enough, he would use his fists.”(1). This excerpt supports that when Okonkwo could not speak he would let his actions speak for him, whenever he felt slightly weak he resorts to fighting. He also acts without thinking of the consequences, including mental consequences. Things Fall Apart states “How can a man who has killed five men in battle fall to pieces because he has added a boy to their number?”(49). Okonkwo killed …show more content…
“His whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and weakness.”(13). No matter what he did, Okonkwo was always afraid of being a failure, he let this fear control him even to the end of his life. “He was possessed by the fear of his fathers contemptible life and shameful death.”(18). During Okonkwo’s life, he always viewed his father as weak. He was afraid of ending up like his father in being a lazy man who had nothing to be proud of in his lifetime and end in a shameful death. No matter what Okonkwo did he was dominated by this