What Is Okonkwo's Fear Of Failure

Okonkwo strives all of his life to become a stronger, more powerful, and a successful individual. He wants to do this because his father was a slack and lazy person who lived most of his life in debt and had no titles to his name. People often looked at his father as a women figure for the few achievements he redeemed. Okonkwo never wanted to be like his father and it eventually got to the point where he became fearful of becoming like him. Achebe uses the power of fear as a theme of to show how much it can devastate one’s

In things fall apart Okonkwo had the fear of becoming his father who was lazy and unsuccessful. Okonkwo didn’t give up when he didn’t inherit seeds from his father to start his farm. Instead, he begged Nwakibie for seeds and started his own farm from the ground up. Okonkwo could have let his fear turn him into a lazy unsuccessful person but in lieu of his fear he didn’t let it impact his working life in a negative way. He decided to be proactive and to get things done on his own, further proving that he was determined to be a great farmer, unlike his father.

But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness.” Many people believed that Okonkwo was such a cruel man because of the wall that he put up. This affected his family because he still continued to act tough with his wives and most of his kids, there was only one of his children that saw his soft side and that was Emzina, his daughter. He also thought a lot about one of the people he killed, which showed that he wasn’t the tough guy that everybody thought he was, but no matter what he refused to show any signs of weakness to avoid being like his

In the story; “Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe” the main character Okonkwo has insecurities that would eventually bring him his un demise. One of his insecurities is his tribe seeing him as the failure and coward that his father was, due to this he based his actions on things that would set him apart. Okonkwo was abusive to his family because of his insecurity of being seen as feeble. Later, in the story Okonkwo would kill to demonstrate to his clan he was a warrior to his tribe mates. Okonkwo’s insecurities from early in his life would later affect his future, where people and objects would remind him of his father’s failure to the point where it would conclude this great warrior’s life.

Similarly, Okonkwo works to lavish his prestige, but in doing so, his weakness and failure become his greatest fears causing him to abandon his other responsibilities to achieve this dominance. Through this fictional character, readers are presented with the human condition of letting fear control dictate actions, which results with the failure in other responsibilities. Throughout his life, Okonkwo sees himself as a strong, powerful man by through his aggression, which is why he abuses his power over his household to achieve his own selfish self-interest:“His [Okonkwo’s] wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper, and so did his little children;” however the narrator also directly states that, “Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness” (Achebe 10).

Rather early in the story, Things Fall Apart, we are met with this line “his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness”. This line is referring to the life of the main character, Okonkwo, who struggles with an internal fear throughout the book.

Okonkwo’s biggest fear is he will be seen as weakling just like his father. We see evidence from the text when, “Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness. It was deeper and more intimate than the fear of evil and capricious gods and of magic, the fear of the forest, and of nature, malevolent, red in tooth and claw.” This evidence supports my claim because it gives example on how Okonkwo wants to be his father’s opposite and how he wants to be more of a

Fear could appeal to many aspects such as fear of one’s self, fear of another being, or fear of failure. Even the most ruthless and short-tempered characters contain a fear. Okonkwo’s fear, though he may seem unbreakable, is losing the opportunity to become leader of his tribe by being seen as weak or unmasculine. Okonkwo’s tribe is sent a boy, Ikemefuna, as redemption after a woman from Okonkwo’s tribe is killed in Ikemefuna’s village. Ikemefuna is given to Okonkwo to live so the elders of the tribe determine what to do with their new addition to the tribe. Okonkwo takes Ikemefuna in and trains him like he would his own son, harshly and unsympathetic. Gradually, Okonkwo begins to like Ikemefuna and grow fond of him once Ikemefuna becomes closer to Okonkwo’s son, Nwoye, while exploiting a masculine effect on his adoptive brother. It comes time for Ikemefuna’s fate to unravel and Okonkwo learns that the boy will be killed. Fear of showing emotion, Okonkwo, while disobeying a friend, follows the tribe into the forest and kills Ikemefuna. Okonkwo is shattered on the inside, yet chooses to hide these emotions for fear of showing weakness. When Okonkwo hides these emotions, “he would use his fists” to relinquish his anger (Achebe 4). The resentment and grief of killing Ikemefuna drives Okonkwo to do inhumane things like killing a clansman which results in Okonkwo’s exile from the

Fear may be the most driving force in this book for most of the characters, specifically Okonkwo. Okonkwo had a terrible childhood full of resentment toward his father. Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, was a lazy beggar. He barely worked so his spouse and children had very little to eat and nearly no money. However, Unoka worked to get money with the slyness of his tongue. He would ask friends and relatives for money and/or food. By the end of his life, Unoka had piled up so much debt that people were coming after him nearly every day to be repaid. When he was a child, Okonkwo was afraid he would not have a meal due to his father’s irresponsibility; this fear left a scar so deep that he let the fear of becoming like his father drive him to work harder

These stories lead him to be strong outside, but weak in the inside. For example, when Ikemefuna cry out “ My father, they killed me” as he ran toward him. Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down.”(61) . He loves Ikemefuna as his son, but was scared and in fear of being thought as weak, he ended up killing Ikemefuna. The story of weakness took control of his action.

Okonkwo’s merciless violence gave him the appearance of being impenetrable. His brutality in the book categorized him as emotionless and callous. His drive to become greater than his father meant he cared only about himself and his own success. Okonkwo beat his own son, Nwoye, for fear he was growing lazy like

Okonkwo instead bundles his fear up deep inside of him, subconsciously allowing fear to drive, and control every aspect of his life, which inevitably causes his

Fear of failure is common among everyone today. In Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe’s main character, Okonkwo, has one fatal flaw, fear. Okonkwo spent his whole life trying to build himself up by trying not to end up like his father and maintaining his reputation, no matter the consequences, only to cut himself down because of his fear of failure and weakness. With a father that was a complete failure it is common sense to want to get away. “Unoka, the grown-up, was a failure.

This shows how destructive fear can be and easily it can tear people apart. Okonkwo was utterly destroyed by all the fear and confusion that’s been building up in himself and he couldn’t take it anymore. Fear also affected other people’s lives in Things Fall Apart but not as badly as

One of the main causes of Okonkwo’s downfall is his fear of being like his father, who was weak and considered a failure. Okonkwo is told that Ikemefuna,