& # 8217 ; s Fear-From Things Fall Apart Essay, Research Paper

Okonkwo? s fright

Thingss Fall Apart, written by Chinua Achebe, is a narrative of a adult male whose life is dominated by his frights. There are many elusive subjects throughout this book. One subject that cries out over the remainder is Okonkwo? s, the chief character, fright of failing as seen through his childhood, his oldest boy, and finally his decease.

Since his childhood, Okonkwo was ashamed of his male parent, ? In his twenty-four hours he ( Unoka ) was lazy and improvident and was rather incapable of believing about tomorrow? ( p.4 ) . By the criterion of his kin, Unoka was a coward and prodigal. When he was a kid, a male child called Okonkwo? s father an agbala. This word means? adult female? every bit good as a adult male who has no rubric. His sloppiness left legion debts unpaid at his decease. Ashamed of his male parent, Okonkwo worked difficult and fought good to derive a repute of high position and influence in his kin. He acquired three married womans, one whom gave him his first boy.

Okonkwo? s foremost married woman, whose name is ne’er mentioned, gave birth to his first boy, Nwoye. Okonkwo saw Nwoye weak and lazy from an early age. For this, Nwoye was beaten invariably. Okonkwo was extremely demanding of his household because of his compulsion non to be like his male parent. He mistook this behaviour as maleness. He wished his boy were a promising, manfully boy like his friend Obierika? s boy, Maduka, who was besides a great combatant. One dark the town of Umuofia was told that person in Mbaino had killed one of their? girls? . The adult female was Ugbeufi Udo? s married woman. The blood monetary value for the slaying was a virgin and immature adult male to Umuofia. The virgin was given to Ugbeufi Udo as his married woman. They did non cognize what to make with the immature male child, Ikemefuna. Okonkwo was asked on behalf of the kin to take attention of the male child. Secretly, Okonkwo grew fond of Ikemefuna, ? Even Okonkwo himself became really fond of the boy-inwardly of class. Okonkwo ne’er showed any emotion openly, unless it be the emotion of choler? ( p.28 ) . Ikemefuna lived with Okonkwo and his household for three old ages until the clip came when the Oracle said that Ikemefuna had to be killed. Okon

kwo was warned non to hold any portion in killing the male child who called him father. He ignored this and upon returning sank into a deep depression which kindled the affliction inside of him. Not merely the decease of Ikemefuna, but besides the inadvertent violent death of Ogbeufi Ezeudu? s boy, which gets Okonkwo and his household exiled for seven old ages, Plutos in his depression.

To expiate for the violent death of his clanswomans? s boy, Okonkwo and his household were cast out of Umuofia and were forced to travel unrecorded with his female parent? s kin in Mbanta. In their 2nd twelvemonth a group of six missionaries traveled to Mbanta and tried to carry the people from their false Gods of wood and rock to the one true God. They captured Nwoye and he subsequently joined their fold. When Okonkwo was informed of the intelligence he strangled Nwoye in choler. He questioned how he could hold fathered such a weak boy. At the terminal of the seven-year expatriate, Okonkwo was able to return place. However, the church had taken over Umuofia besides. Nothing was the same. Okonkwo refused to incorporate with the new visitants. He thought that the kin? s failure to take them was? womanly? . Almost happy once more, Okonkwo began to accept the new Umuofia. Then the leaders of the kin, including Okonkwo, were taken for ransom by the church. Deeply enraged by what was go oning, Okonkwo killed one of the leaders at a meeting. The mollification of Okonkwo? s kin is what depressed him. He knew his kin would non travel to war. This desire to move violently all goes back to his male parent? s deficiency of desire. In the terminal the force settled on Okonkwo, when he hung himself.

In decision, all these facets: his childhood, his first boy and Ikemefuna, and his decease contribute in explicating Okonkwo? s fright of failing. Okonkwo? s life was controlled by his frights. He valued the success of his household and the community with his ain success. If Nwoye was weak it was because he had failed as a male parent. The mollification of the town was a contemplation of Okonkwo? s failures, he thought. Not being able to command those events, Okonkwo, out of despair or either out of the pride in his manhood or possibly both, killed himself.