Things Fall Apart Quote Analysis

“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown” (Lovecraft). H.P. Lovecraft’s words artfully describe fear of the unknown as a quality that everyone has. In the fictional text Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the main character, Okonkwo, is driven by his fear of the future to strive for full control over himself as well as partial control over fellow clan members. Okonkwo pushes himself to appear powerful in front of others so he can keep his control, since he knows that at any moment he could lose it, with a large clan with many high ranking leaders. He gains his control by becoming a leader of the clan, letting him make decisions for himself and the clan. An individual's fear of leaving decisions to the unknown

Okonkwo loses his control when he was told of a decision made that he had no control in making or changing, the decision the Oracle made to kill Ikemefuna, Okonkwo’s son. Okonkwo decides to try to acquire control by coming with the group to kill Ikemefuna, because he wanted to show that he respects and agrees with the Oracle’s decision. To do this, he went with the group to kill Ikemefuna. Okonkwo was fearful “of being thought weak” (Achebe 17) by the clan. If he had control over himself, he would not have made the choice to kill Ikemefuna. A person with more power than him making decisions for him scares him and makes him overcompensate for his lack of power by coming along and dealing Ikemefuna the final blow. Okonkwo’s fear of a bad reputation controlled him and his choices, thus obscuring Okonkwo’s love for Ikemefuna, whom he never imagined killing. People have a fear of looking weak in front of their peers, thinking they will be judged for it The fear overwhelms and controls their lives, causing them to make choices they may come to later