Theme Of Fear In Things Fall Apart By Okonkwo

At the crux of the matter, fear plays a prodigious role in the formation of our identities and in the execution of our actions. For fear is an innate human instinct, something that peoples of many years past have seen much use in protecting themselves from harm and from uncertainty. In the case of Okonkwo in the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, of course, our protagonist should have nothing to fear (or so it seems at the superficial level). He is an influential clan leader in Umuofia, with three wives, many children, and successful yam harvests to boast in his society. He is a revered warrior, and he has taken five heads in battle. So what would such a powerful man fear? After all, it seems more reasonable that others would fear him, not the other way around. Well, dear reader, Okonkwo fears failure.

Unoka was a man of low status, nothing any son would be proud to call his father. Unoka could not even support his own family, and thus Okonkwo and his brothers, sisters, and mother were left to fend for themselves with what little they had. Consequently, from a young age, Okonkwo had a hunger - a hunger to do better in life for the sake of his own family as well as for the sake of himself. He, above all, did not want to become like his