Things Fall Apart Fear free essay sample

The fear of being anything close to his father Unoka, the fear of acting anything other than a man and the fear of adjusting to anything other than his own social customs is what drove him over the edge and into a noose. Overtaken by fear, Okonkwo commits senseless actions for the sake of living up to his own selfish expectations. The relationship a father and son have is unmistakable; men are single-handedly the greatest influence on a childs growth and development. When Ikemefuna was taken away from his home and his family, he was too young to realise what exactly was going on. He was but a child and only viewed the world from his pubescent perspective. Ikemefuna is just a boy and his innocent ignorance toward his circumstance influenced his reaction of inevitable fear, â€Å"He [Ikemefuna] was terribly afraid. He could not understand what was happening to him or what he had done. We will write a custom essay sample on Things Fall Apart: Fear or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page How could he know that his father had taken a hand in killing a daughter of Umuofia? All he knew was that a few men had arrived at their house, conversing with his father in low tones, and at the end he had been taken out and handed over to a stranger† (12). His fear comes from the idea of not knowing what will happen next and his limited understanding of the world around him adds to this internal suspense of the unknown. being submerged in fear of being killed, Ikemefuna pleads to Okonkwo, his father, to help him, but to no avail. Okonkwo struck him down nonetheless. Afraid of being perceived as weak he takes part in his death, when in actuality, he loved Ikemefuna as a son of his own, and it deeply pained him to have to dispose of him. The fear of arousing circumstances can also put a persons actions in line and pointed toward the right direction. Such as in the case of Okonkwo’s son, Nwoye, his fear is toward the wrath of his father. He is afraid of defying his wishes and having his father severely beat him. This is what led to his conversion to Christianity, it gave him hope to another lifestyle so he wouldnt have to be afraid of his father all the time. During the the week of peace, Ikemefuna Nwoye and Okonkwo were preparing the yams for the week of peace, Okonkwo, once again, would rather raise his sons with brute force and violence rather than compassion and kindness, â€Å".. e [Okonkwo] always found fault with their effort, and he said so with much threatening. Do you think you are cutting up yams for cooking? he asked Nwoye. If you put another yam of this size, I shall break your jaw. You think you are still a child. I began to farm at your age. I will not have a son who cannot hold up his head in the gathering of the clan. I would sooner strangle him with my own hands† (28). Okonkwo believes that assert ive authority is the way to raise a boy to a man, but little does he know that being violently assertive will result in his son losing respect and completely resenting him. His fear of allowing his sons to be anything like his own father caused him to be viciously brutal toward his family which led to Nwoye’s conversion to Christianity , betraying the Ibo culture. Fear influences people in different ways, as expected; reactions to such a strong emotion vary from person to person. For some, their mouths becomes parched, words stammer after each other, their body tremors as their heart skips a beat. For the unfortunate, they experience hallucinations. When Chielo abducted Ekwefis daughter, Ezinma, Ekwefi was horrified out of her mind to the point where, in the moonlit darkness, she was imagining shadowy figures who twisted and turned into new shapes as she looked at them, â€Å"She had prayed for the moon to rise. But now she found the half-light of the incipient moon more terrifying than darkness. The world was now peopled with vague, fantastic figures that dissolved under her steady gaze and then formed again in new shapes. At one stage Ekwefi was so afraid that she nearly called out Chielo for companionship and human sympathy† (62). Apart from her fear, it was her courage that convinced her to follow Chielo into such an unfamiliar environment, otherwise she wouldnt have followed her but her love for her daughter was stronger than her fear of the night and the possessed Chielo. Her fear told her to turn around and return home but her love for Enzima gave her the courage to conquer her fears, but regardless her fear never went away, it was there with her not as a heavy weight on her shoulders but as a silent companion, pacified by love. The influences fear can have on people can be various, depending on who the person really is and what drives and motivates them. However, fear is an influential and an ironically man-made emotion, causing its victims to hallucinate and act ‘out of character’ in the presence of their horrors. Fear affects each character in this novel, one way or another whether its Nwoye’s fear of his father, Okonkwo’s fear of becoming lazy like his father, and Ekwefi’s fear of losing her only daughter. It can cause them to behave in ways that can be viewed down upon, their community to disapprove with their actions, and bring down the gods wrath upon them. Fear is what truly motivates the actions of the characters of Things Fall Apart.