Okonkwo Fear

As a child, Okonkwo grew up disliking his father. He knew his father to be lazy, and weak. Resulting in Okonkwo’s life being dictated by fear. The fear of becoming like his father. In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo fears of becoming like his father. He decides that he will not be like him and he will do anything to prove it. Throughout trying to prove he’s not weak, Okonkwo makes bad decision is alway having to deal with the burden of being in his and societies minds, strong and powerful. He becomes a famous wrestler and is respected within his tribe and community because of how successful he is. Okonkwo’s father’s lifestyle played a major aspect in the book, because Okonkwo constantly tried to prove himself to others, leading

him to make a decision that he will regret, and causing his relationship with his son to become unhealthier, as he sees a lot of his father in his son, Nyowe. Which to Okonkwo is a disgrace and a crime. Okonkwo constantly trying to prove himself to his community and himself becomes a burden on him and others. Okonkwos fear of failure, weakness, and strength dicates all the choices he makes throughout his life.
Okonkwo’s fear of being his father is driven by anger. By growing up around his father, Unoka, it gave him the drive and motivation not to resemble him. “Okonkwo’s fear was greater than these. It was not external, but lay deep within himself. It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father. Even as a little boy he had resented his father’s failure and weakness…”(Achebe 10). Throughout Okonkwo’s life he persevered with his hard work and by doing so, he claimed the highest position in his clan. Okonkwo doesn’t want to look weak like Unoka, instead he wants to appear tough. Thus causing problems for him and his family. By trying so hard not to become like his father he made rash decisions that he would regret. He never wanted to show his weakness, anything he could do to prove himself he would. Okonkwo had to prove himself, he started off after his father dying with nothing. He didn’t inherit belongings like other people would. Becoming one of the wealthiest people in his clan he not only proved to the other villagers but also himself that he wasn’t weak like his father. By getting caught up in trying to not resemble his father he caused himself the significant loss of Ikemefuna, which lead him into depression, although he didn’t show it.
Okonkwo’s fear of losing his masculinity caused him to kill Ikemefuna. Internally, Okonkwo felt everything he went through, but he never showed it. After killing Ikemefuna he was lead into depression, and grieved internally. When bottling up emotions, oneself will tend to hold back from situations happening in their everyday life. Okonkwo exemplifies this, with his actions to situations and how he reacted to things during the time he was depressed. “Okonkwo did not taste any food for two days after the death of Ikemefuna. He drank palm-wine from morning till night, and his eyes were red and fierce like the eyes of a rat when it was caught by the tail and dashed against the floor” (63). Okonkwo was upset internally about his actions, but still needed to prove to himself and to others how masculine he was. Eventually, Okonkwo learned to put others before his ego, and helped his daughter Ezinma, after she becomes sick. He gathered medicine and does everything that he can to recover her. Killing Ikemefuna helped him realize that he cares about his family and not his ego.
Okonkwo has fear that his son Nwoye will turn out to be just like his father. He considers Nwoye feminine and weak, this disappoints him tremendously, in which he has a more difficult relationship with him. Nwoye would often be beaten by Okonkwo. Their relationship changed dramatically after Nwoye joined the white church, this made Okonkwo furious. “Nwoye struggled to free himself from the choking grip. “Answer me,” roared Okonkwo, “before I kill you!” He seized a heavy stick that lay on the dwarf wall and hit him two or three savage blows” (132). After Okonkwo finding out about how he joined the church he confronted Nyowe and strangled him, making it so he couldn’t answer anything Okonkwo was asking, although he already knew the answer. This display’s how Okonkwo would treat his son. Both Okonkwo and Nyowe alienated from the tribes traditions and beliefs, but Nyowe goes to a church, and Okonkwo does in a violent way. Furthermore, both Okonkwo and Nyowe share the likeness of expanding from their tribe, but in human nature Nyowe is more humble and quiet, while Okonkwo is far the opposite.
By Okonkwo having much fear of being like his father it takes consequence on his actions.

With fear, oneself tends to react differently from certain situations, than one would in a situation they are comfortable in. Tending to make rash decisions without thoroughly thinking can lead to a different outcome as if one were to know what’s going on and figure out what to do about it. Okonkwo’s resentment against his father made him become internally weak, although on the outside he was superior. By caring more about his appearance and not appearing weak to others. His clan became weak and wasn’t able to fight its enemies. For once in his life, Okonkwo wasn’t thinking about himself, rather than his clan. He wasn’t worried about not becoming the man his father was, and the one of the times Okonkwo wasn’t thinking of himself but of others he finds out he was standing alone. Okonkwo’s eventually hung himself, rather than being killed dishonorably by the white-men. His fear of being weak and like his father took over his life and the one time ignored himself and started acting for others. All the choices he’s made throughout his life for his self image, was worth nothing. Not until after he hung himself did others realize that he was right all

along.