Okonkwo Fear Analysis

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Okonkwo’s fear affects his overall personality and behavior; it controls the way he runs his household, speaks with his friends, and deals with certain events. Okonkwo grew up as the son of Unoka, who was an abomination to their village. Okonkwo’s fear of weakness and of failure developed due to his fear of becoming like his father. “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 the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father[…] Okonkwo was ruled by one passion- to hate everything that his father Unoka had loved. One of those things was gentleness and another was idleness.”(22-23, Achebe). Okonkwo shapes his behavior and personality …show more content…

His behavior due to his inability to express anything other than anger and the need to not be seen as weak leads to him mistreating members of his close family. “In his anger he had forgotten that it was the Week of Peace. His first two wives ran out in great alarm pleading with him that it was the sacred week. But Okonkwo was not the man to stop beating somebody half-way through, not even for fear of a goddess.”(37, Achebe). Okonkwo’s anger, a result from his fear, leads him to beat his wife for not being as responsible as she should have been. This quote also shows the effect of his fear taken to another level, not only did he beat his wife but he did it during the Week of Peace, where violence is absolutely forbidden. So not only does his fear shape Okonkwo’s behavior, but that behavior causes him to also hurt his rise as an honorable and successful man. Okonkwo’s fear of weakness and of failure, that was shaped by his father’s actions and behavior, is the cause of Okonkwo’s own harsh and cruel personality. And his personality is the cause of Okonkwo’s bad actions throughout the book, that actually hurt the social status he is working

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