Fear In Oedipus Caribbe's Things Fall Apart

The characters’ fears all rest upon a single idea: the unknown. All three stories depict characters that find themselves fearful of things that they aren’t familiar with, things that are outside of their comfort zone. The first character, Cable, acknowledges a very common fear: the fear of death. For many people, death is the ultimate unknown and Cable portrays this concept in an almost literal sense as he retells his story of approaching the mortuary: “I was apprehensive as I climbed the stone steps to the entrance. I feared rejection or, worse, an invitation to come and stay” (64). Social rejection and isolation is a feeling that all humans seek to avoid. Yet, Cable is more fearful of facing the uncanniness of death that awaits him beyond the mortuary doors than he is of the aforementioned social rejection. …show more content…
Cultures are different worldwide and when members of cultures are exposed to new traditions, they can find themselves in unpleasant unknown territories. Edge has never consumed a pig lip before and the very thought of it invokes an almost innate sense of disgust to him. …show more content…
Edge gives a vivid visualization of his fear of eating the pig skin, of trying something that he’s never done before, of venturing beyond what he considers normal. To him, the idea of eating the flesh is repulsive despite the fact that plenty of other people consider the lip a delightful snack. These two stories tell of the fear involved with venturing past the ideas and traditions that people find themselves accustomed to and Coyne’s story is no different. She describes how she was raised with the idea that society imposes punishments justly and