Okonkwo's Fear Of Failure In Things Fall Apart

“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. Whether that be molding his sons to be great farmers or refusing to submit to colonists. Okonkwo’s fear of failure negatively impacts his life because it strained his relationship with his son, causes him to be hurtful towards his family and makes him dangerously impulsive. Ultimately, this fear becomes the downfall of Okonkwo and leads to his unfortunate death.

Okonkwo’s fear of failure hurt his relationship with his eldest son, Nwoye, because he wanted Nwoye to be like

Okonkwo doesn’t want to be a failure like his father so he makes sure that he is the opposite of him. This means being strict and mean even toward his family. For example, “Okonkwo ruled his household with a heavy hand. His wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper, and so did his little children'' (pg 13). Okonkwo felt that he needed to control his household with abuse and terrified his family. He doesn’t want to be affectionate like his father and end up being a failure. Okonkwo was not a good father or husband and his family had to walk on eggshells around him in fear of his irrational anger. To Okonkwo, anger represents being strong and not weak. He constantly shows this emotion in his demeanor and soon it became the most important aspect for him. This is important because it shows how Okonkwo instilled fear into his family to not be seen as a failure. Okonkwo’s wives most likely got it the worst. Oknokwo’s youngest wife went to a friend’s house to braid her hair and couldn’t cook the afternoon meal. So when she returned, “he beat her very heavily. In his anger he had forgotten that it was the Week of Peace…But Okonkwo was not the man to stop beating somebody half-way through, not even for fear of a goddess” (pg 29-30). The Week of Peace was a sacred week where people were friendly to their neighbors and weren’t supposed to

The first example of Okonkowo’s impulsiveness is when he participated in the death of Ikemefuna. Ikemefuna was sent to the village of Umuofia after someone in his home village, Mbaino, killed a daughter of Umuofia. They decided that Ikemefuna should live with Okonkwo until his fate was decided. 3 years later, the decision came. It was decided that Ikemefuna should be killed and Okonkwo was warned not to participate in the killing custom because Ikemefuna views him as a father. However, “He heard Ikemefuna cry, ‘My Father, they have killed me!’ as he ran towards him. Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak'' (pg 61). Okonkwo killed Ikemefuna despite being warned not to. His fear of appearing weak, caused him to kill someone he considered a son. This is important because it shows how much Okonkwo’s fear of failure controls him and causes him to make irrational decisions. Eventually, this fear led to his demise. When missionaries began to invade Umuofia, Okonkwo wanted to go to war immediately but his clan members refused. Instead they let them stay. Because of this, Okonkwo wound up getting arrested with 6 other men by the missionaries. They were released once a fine was paid but this increased tensions. Umufoia had a meeting about going to war with the missionaries when they were interrupted by a court messenger.