Things Fall Apart Childhood Trauma Essay

The influence of childhood trauma holds a great amount of impact on one’s adulthood and decision-making abilities. According to Sigmund Freud, all children experience an Oedipus complex with their parents - a sense of rivalry with their same-sex parent for the attention of their opposite-sex parent (Lampl-de Groot 335). Within the context of Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart, the reader witnesses how this complex is exercised in Okonkwo’s childhood. As the warrior from Umuofia grows up ashamed of his effeminate father, Unoka, the experience results in his psyche being dominated by hypermasculinity and guilt in adulthood. The presence of a father figure, or lack thereof, has an abundant influence on the child he raises, specifically for young men. Aligning with Sigmund Freud’s assertion

In his opinion, “[t]o show affection [is] a sign of weakness,” an effeminate quality that has no place in the heart of a warrior (Achebe 28). The only desires that he openly expresses are to “conquer and subdue” others (Achebe 42). This emotional damage is rooted in his trauma, as childhood experiences can “significantly alter one’s ability to attach to one another” and create solid emotional connections (Hecker 83). His lack of a father figure planted the seeds for “poor self-regulation” and “overall aggressive behavior,” these characteristics surface in his extremely violent behavior towards his wives and children (Daly and Perez 10). The brutality is displayed at its acme when he murders Ikemefuna “dazed with fear” of being seen as weak (Achebe 61). As Okonkwo becomes more violent, the “over-valuation … of masculine qualities” and the “exclusion of feminine ones” creates an emotional imbalance within him that ultimately brings about his demise (Stratton 22). Okonkwo’s past coerces him unconsciously to become a hypermasculine