Things Fall Apart

1319 Words6 Pages
Things Fall Apart: Fear as a dominating factor Fear is an emotion induced by a perceived threat which causes entities to quickly pull far away from it and usually hide. It is a basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific stimulus, such as pain or the threat of danger. Things fall Apart is a critically-acclaimed novel known all over the world. The story of a man whose life is dominated by his fears. Fear is pervasive throughout the novel. How does fear affect the actions of Okonkwo? Of Nwoye? How does fear influence Okonkwo’s relationships with others? The story “Things Fall Apart” demonstrates that fear is a dominating factor that can both take you to fame and/or destroy a person and society. Okonkwo was very well known not only in his village but all nine villages of Umuofia. His achievements in the tribe brought him this honor of popularity. Okonkwo gained his honors for his hard work and never giving up. As a young man of only eighteen he had brought honor to his village by throwing Amalinze the Cat. Amalinze was the great wrestler who for seven years was unbeaten, from Umuofia to Mexico. Okonkwo’s actions are also greatly driven by fear: the fear of becoming anything like his father, Unoka. His life was “dominated by fear, the fear of failure and weakness” and this causes him to act with extreme determination and live the harsh life because of his “fear of himself, least he should be found to resemble his father”. He constantly feared that others would have negative emotions towards him because of what his father did. His father, Unoka, was a lazy man who did not think of the future. In his day he was lazy and improvident and was quite incapable of think about tomorrow. Due to the lifestyle that Okonkwo witnessed he despises a lazy lifestyle. His life was all about hard work and never failing. As quoted, He had no patience with unsuccessful
Open Document