In the two books, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck, there is a main point that is made. The main characters in the novels are both hard workers and are determined to become the best in their clan or village, but their desires prevent them from being a successful person or a failure. These characters have some situations where their desires get the best of them and they either make a good choice or make a bad one. In these two novels, a comparison of the different characters, the situations of the characters, and a major theme will be made to show that desires can lead to either wonderful or dreadful factors.
The two main protagonists in these novels are Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart and Wang Lung in The Good Earth. Their characters are very similar and they each want something, but they way that they meet their end goal is what varies between each person. First, Okonkwo yearns to be better than his father: “He had not patience with his father. Unoka, for that was his father’s name, had died ten years ago. In his day he was lazy and improvident and was quite incapable of thinking about tomorrow.” (Achebe, 4) He did not want to be the lazy and careless person that his father was. This became his ultimate motivation in life and every time a situation came up, this would be the thing that he would base his decisions off of. Since he is the opposite from his father, he became a hardworking, brave, and violent. These character traits come from his desires, which later lead to his bad choices. Okonkwo became very aggressive due to the passiveness of his father. This causes him to create violence in the village and his desire to be violent caused him to break any attempt at peace: “And when she retur...
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..., a comparison of the characters, situations of the characters, and a major theme are made to show that desires can direct them to a helpful or a harmful situation.
Works Cited
Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Anchor, 1994. Print.
Buck, Pearl S. The Good Earth. New York: Washington Square, 2004. Print.
Hajee, Karim. "Power Of Desire." Power Of Desire. Web. 23 Mar. 2014. .
"In Order to Succeed, Your Desire for Success Should Be Greater than Your Fear of Failure. | Philosiblog." Philosiblog. 24 Feb. 2012. Web. 23 Mar. 2014. .
Meyer, Paul J. "Increase Your Desire to Succeed." SUCCESS. Web. 23 Mar. 2014. .
Often, when a story is told, it follows the events of the protagonist. It is told in a way that justifies the reasons and emotions behind the protagonist actions and reactions. While listening to the story being cited, one tends to forget about the other side of the story, about the antagonist motivations, about all the reasons that justify the antagonist actions.
Did you ever notice that human nature revolves around needs, desires, and wants? There are different types of needs, such as safety, social, basic needs. These desires and impulses gives us our survival and the ability to function in the environment we live in. Our subconscious mind is responsible for the decisions we make, and such impulses makes us commit actions we have no control of. In literature, we are able to understand and judge the character’s behavior more so than our own.
David Mamet once stated, “..it is the human lot to try and fail..” This quotation implies that an individual will attempt to achieve success throughout their lifetime, but he/she will also have to face the failures as well. The quote relates to the philosophy that in order to achieve something, one will have to work for it. This quotation is correct and is further supported by two literary works. The two novels are Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck and The Pearl, also by John Steinbeck. In these two novels, the protagonists know that their goals are very farfetched and out of the norm, yet they both try to achieve it and ultimately fail.
But for the protagonists in these stories, these forces are somewhat out of sync. Failures of individuation, and the completion of transformational journeys which lead to madness, resignation, and death point to an inability of the characters to reconcile their wants and needs with their actual lives.
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts”
These characters, however different they lie on the morality scale, all share the sinful trait of greed. They all ask, and take too much, ruining what the good that they had in their lives. Understanding their mistakes offers its useful readers a lesson, not to demand too much of the things we are offered. The characters struggle with their desires, each of them succombing to their passions.
...rs and situations to help explain the societal issues surrounding the time period. The dreadfulness comes from the controversial issues and feelings these characters experience. These characters must overcome these dreadful experiences in order to change what society deems as acceptable in the future.
Nnoromele, Patrick C. “The Plight of A Hero in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart [1].” College Literature 27.2 (2000): 146. Literature Resource Center. Web. 25 Mar. 2010.
The book “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe is a fictional look at the social and cultural life of an African tribe of the lower Niger River region. It depicts the every day life of the tribe and its members. It also shows the culture and customs of the tribe.
Both characters have life goals before the fall. “In Things Fall Apart, Achebe makes it clear that Okonkwo’s single passion was ‘to become one of the lords of the clan’. According to Achebe, it was Okonkwo’s ‘life spring.’ Okonkwo wanted to be a hero,” claims Nnoromele (41). In becoming a great man and hero he must overcome the shame his father has left upon him. His father was lazy and had no titles. This helps motivate him on the road to heroism.
Chinua Achebe tells a strong story by using a brash and quick-to-action warrior in Things Fall Apart. The Story illustrates the way western colonization came and destroyed the Ibo people’s way of life. Okonkwo, the warrior and protagonist of the novel, is described in the novel as being someone who “was not a man of thought but of action” (69). His close friend Obierika however, is described as “a man who thought about things” yet was also a man of great standing in the novel (125). This contrast serves as a counterpoint to Okonkwo’s character traits and uses Obierika as a tool to enhance the readers' understanding of Okonkwo and his need to act.
The novel “Things fall Apart “by Chinua Achebe can be, consider as tragedy. As per Aristotle, tragedy should deal with the theme, which is serious and main protagonist in the novel should come from Nobel family and if he is not from Nobel family, he should earn high social statues. According to Aristotle True tragic hero should suffer both physically and mentally and further the novel should consist of conflict, rising action and then leading to resolution at last evoke pity and fear to the audience.".In this way, its shows the plot moves from hamartia through anagnorisis and peripetiea to catastrophe. However there is the presence of six major element of tragedy, plot, character, though, diction, song and spectacle.
The character of Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart was driven by fear, a fear of change and losing his self-worth. He needed the village of Umuofia, his home, to remain untouched by time and progress because its system and structure were the measures by which he assigned worth and meaning in his own life. Okonkwo required this external order because of his childhood and a strained relationship with his father, which was also the root of his fears and subsequent drive for success. When the structure of Umuofia changed, as happens in society, Okonkwo was unable to adapt his methods of self-evaluation and ways of functioning in the world; the life he was determined to live could not survive a new environment and collapsed around him.
Chinua Achebe characterizes the novel, “Things Fall Apart” as a title doubt and confining to a reputation. The main character, Okonkwo, is diminishing his self worth by satisfying his belief in what is believed to be right – a man. Though his stubbornness to value Ibo culture backfires on him repeatedly. Okonkwo’s requirement to be true to his reputation was to keep the tribe, Umuofia, unharmed/uncolonized. The root cause of his fear grew from within him as a child from this insignificant person of his father, Unoka.
Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart, follows the tragic life of Okonkwo, a man who suffers a miserable fate due to the fear of failure that controls every action he makes. Though the fear of failure acts as motivation to become a successful and respected man at first, it later cripples Okonkwo in such a way that failure ultimately defines his life. Okonkwo is constantly afraid of being a victim of weakness and desperately tries to remain a strong and unyielding man. It is his overwhelming fear of weakness that causes things to fall apart in his life, as his attempts to avoid failure and weakness eventually lead to the ultimate defeat: his shameful suicide. Fear of failure and weakness dominates Okonkwo throughout his life.