“Successful people are not gifted; they just work hard, then succeed on purpose.” In other words, you are more likely to be successful if you work hard than being lazy and doing minimal effort. If you always do the bare minimum, you will get the bare minimum in return. The novel “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe was used. This novel is about the fall of Unoka’s son, Okonkwo. This essay explains Unoka’s character traits. Unoka’s role in this novel is that, he is Okonkwo’s father and he is known for his weakness and lack of responsibility. The three character traits that describe Unoka are improvident, plaintive, and contemptible. The first character trait to describe Unoka is improvident. The word improvident means rash or careless. In his day he was lazy and improvident and was quite incapable of thinking about tomorrow (p4). This direct text supports that Unoka is careless because he doesn’t think about the consequences of his actions, his decisions are based on what he wants or needs at that moment. For example, if any money came Unoka’s way, he immediately bought gourds of palm-wine, called his neighbours to gather around and made merry. Unoka is also a debtor, he always borrows money from his neighbors, but always fails to keep his promises of paying them back. When Unoka died, he died a shameful death …show more content…
And indeed he was possessed by the fear of his father’s contemptible life and shameful death (p18). This direct text supports that Unoka had a contemptible life. Unoka’s own son was ashamed of his father, and the life that he lived. Unoka was poor, lazy, neglectful to his wife, and he did not plan for the future. According to the novel, during Unoka’s life, he never took a title and therefore never gained status or respect from the villagers, and later on from his son Okonkwo. Since Unoka died in shame, his son didn’t want to have the life that his father