Blog Report #2 - Madison Boynton

In many works of literature, the behavior of a character or a group of characters is motivated by emotion. In Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart, up till now it is easy to see just how Okonkwo is motivated by the power of fear. For all his desire to be strong, Okonkwo is haunted by fear. He is profoundly afraid of failure, and he is afraid of being considered weak. He wants nothing to be like his father, he will do anything and everything he can to get to the point of being a well-known person of the tribe. Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, was a lazy person who lived most of his life in debt and held no titles to his name.

Because of the strong desire and fear to be nothing like his father, Okonkwo set extremely high goals for himself. He became a strong member of his tribe because of his achievements like throwing The Cat in wrestling, growing many yams each harvest, and becoming a known hero. But besides all this, Okonkwo’s fear runs deep. In the novel it states, “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” (Achebe 13). Okonkwo’s mistaken concept of masculinity leads him to commit foolish acts.

So far in the novel, the first time Okonkwo committed a foolish act out of looking like his father was when he shot Ikemefuna. That scene went like this; “He heard Ikemefuna cry, “My father, they have killed me!” as he ran towards him. Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak” (Achebe 61). Okonkwo was okay with killing a boy who called him father, because he didn’t want to be considered a woman. A women was a man like his father.

Okonkwo strives all his life to become a stronger, more powerful, and a successful individual unlike his father.

Of these aspects: his childhood and Ikemefuna, contributes in explaining Okonkwo’s fear of weakness. Okonkwo’s life was controlled by his fears. He valued the success of his family and the community with his own success in hopes to one day never resemble his father.