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Fear Is The Ultimate Human Fear In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

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Fear is the ultimate human emotion. In the historical fiction novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, it explores the protagonist of Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo who is considered a tragic hero. Okonkwo 's tragic imperfection is his trepidation of impuissance and failure. While most characters fear events that are outside of their control, Okonkwo is consumed by a terrible internal worry about himself and his identity. Fear leads him to lash out in some pretty nasty ways: beating his wives, abusing and alienating his oldest son, partaking in the murder of his adoptive son, etc. Fear drives people to sporadic actions through characters, proverbs, and motif of strength. Fear drives Ekwefi to act quickly. Ekwefi hurries through Okonkwo’s hut and goes outside “Where are you going?” he asked. “I am following Chielo,” she replied and disappeared in the darkness (103). Out of Ekwefi’s intense fear that her only daughter will be hurt, Ekwefi finds the desperate courage to follow Chielo and risk the gods’ disapproval. Fear drives Okonkwo to act tough. Okonkwo always has the fear of failure and weakness. Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo is not a cruel man, but his whole life is dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness. It is deeper and more intimate than the fear of evil and capricious gods and of magic, the fear of the forest, and of nature, malevolent, red in tooth and claw. Okonkwo’s fear is greater than these. It is not external, but lays deep within himself. It

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