Okonkwo's Fear In Things Fall Apart

[quote] . In the novel Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo uses his fear to motivate him to be successful in the village; However, this fear only holds him back and he does not succeed, but only falls. Okonkwo’s biggest fear is to be like his father-lazy and emotional. This fear is shown in different ways, and Okonkwo compensates for it by being violent and impulsive. Although Okonkwo tries to be successful by not being weak and powerless, all of his actions based off fear lead to negative outcomes. He also fears losing his power, and during his return to Umuofia, his pride is lost and kills himself. Okonkwo’s biggest and most impactful fear is to be like his father. Okonkwo’s father was cowardly and was a vain dreamer, and by the criterion of the clan, he was not deemed a successful man. Because of this, Okonkwo is ashamed of his father’s life, and vowed to himself to not be like his father and to be successful in the clan. However, this fear causes Okonkwo to act and react in ludicrous ways;

Many times throughout the novel, Okonkwo harms himself by blindly trying to resist showing emotion causes relationships, lives and his own life to wither. During the week of peace, Okonkwo had found his wife not cooking dinner. He beats her for that reason causing worse consequences. Furthermore, Ikemefuna was Okonkwo’s favorite; he was a hard-working boy who obeyed Okonkwo and was pleasing to Okonkwo, and Okonkwo even regarded him as his son. However, when people were about to kill Ikemefuna,“Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak” (Achebe). It is obvious that killing Ikemefuna was completely pointless. To stand back and not kill Ikemefuna made Okonkwo think that he was weak. To be not perceived as weak made Okonkwo kill his favorite associate. From Okonkwo’s actions, it is clear that he does ridiculous things that do not actually benefit him in