Although his father was looked upon as a failure in society, in the eyes of the tribe, and by his own son, he contained something that Okonkwo never had: humility and happiness in the smallest things. He thought that those were the reasons that made his father a failure. His son, Nwoye, was more like Okonkwo’s father and this leads them to drift off in different directions. Okonkwo had grown up to reject anything that resembled his father, humility or happiness, and this leads him to live his life dominated by fear. Okonkwo's tragic flaw is that he fears looking weak and letting emotions get the best of him is what lead him to his ultimate downfall.
Okonkwo and Macbeth are both heavily influenced by other characters, fuelled by the expectations of their societies, and driven to act based on their tragic flaw. The reason behind all the actions Okonkwo takes can be traced back to one person; his father. Okonkwo grew up hating Unoka’s laziness and he “was ruled by one passion- to hate everything that his father Unoka had loved” (Achebe 13). This led him to rule “his household with a heavy hand” (Achebe 13), and treat his family poorly. He is afraid to show affection, as seen with Ezinma and Ikemefuna.
The other characters are bothered and annoyed by the grievances of Anse, and his neighbors such as Tull view Addies death and Vardaman’s actions as “A judgment on them. I see the hand of the lord upon this boy for Anse Bundren’s judgment and warning.” (72) Tull thinks that Anse deserved what he got and that the way he acted warranted the “judgment” passed by god. Anse’s dialect is another part of his personality that is very unique. It is obvious from his speech that he is uneducated and “country”. This lack of education could partly be an explanation for his selfishness, because he has never had the exposure to things other than what he knows in his own small world.
Chris McCandless does not feel he belong to the upper class society his family does. He resents this community because of their value of money and power. Because of his disconnection, Chris feels as though he has lost his identity and sense of self. He also feels disconnected from his parents. Chris feels as though he does not belong because he found out that everything his parents had been telling him was a lie.
His parents actions when he was young left him with the idea that love and relationships are horrible and all it does is hurt us, he felt as if it’s not worth going through the pain and stress. He only saw the bad sides of love, and because of that, he kept himself from everyone; he never realised the good sides of love until later on in his life. Another main contrast between the two poems, is guilt. In both poems the poets both feel guilt, but in different ways. Harrison, who had a good and loving family life, felt guilty about the way he treated his father when mourning.
The hatred would not let him pick her up” (163). In this mistreatment of his daughter, Cholly continues a common cycle of outsiders in society by creating another outsider in order to make him feel better about himself. As
His biggest strike against him is that he is too controlling and only sees rolls from his viewpoint. His agent, George Fields, explained that no one will hire him because of his bad reputation. In his personal life, Michael is a bit of a jerk that treats women poorly, especially his long term friend and fellow actor Sandy Lester, a woman who already has self-esteem issues.
In The Road, the father and son are cut off from their “home”, civilization, and experience a feeling of exile because of it. Their exile proves both alienating and enriching, two essential elements of literary exile. Alienation is the state of being isolated, or viewing the world from an objective standpoint. The father and son are forced to alienate themselves from the world because of its innate evil. As the boy grows older with this point of view, he comes to know the world as predominantly evil.
Cohen argues that Working class boys are often at the bottom of the status hierarchy because of failing the opportunity structure of education and the inability to get a good job. He argues that due to this they feel alienated from main stream society and therefore join like-minded males and invert society’s norms and values. For example steal as they know it’s against society’s norms and values. Cohen stresses that this is all because they are suffering from status frustration as their opportunities are blocked hence why they consequently reject middle class values by forming a delinquent subculture. Therefore in Cohen’s opinion crime and deviance is the product of status frustration.
Embarrassment is part of negative pride for Brother. For example, He thinks he can not be proud of himself if Doodle is disabled. He has the idea that physical disabilities are something to be ashamed of, and that a disabled person reflects shame on family members.