Fear In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

Fear is something that every living organisms have. It limits our potentials, it causes us to perceive something as dangerous, a threat. Fear controls us, it controls us so much as to even change our behavior. Many of the characters in Things Fall Apart tend to be in fear of something. They all suffer from fear of something. Okonkwo fears becoming like his lazy and shameful father, Ekwefi fears losing her daughter, Ezinma, and Ikemefuna fears what the future holds for him. Even though most characters in this book fear things that are out of their control, Okonkwo is affected by this internal struggle within himself and his identity, which defines how he treats other people. He is afraid of being seen as feminine and resorts to hiding his emotions. He connects war, blood, violence and anger with masculinity. Rather than mastering his fear, Okonkwo allows it to dominate him and take control of his actions. Growing paranoid day by day, Okonkwo concludes that it is his inner spirit that is causing this and not his actual coward self. This fear leads him to lash out on things in pretty violent ways: beating his wives during the Peace week, abusing and alienating his …show more content…
Having countless failures in children, Ekwefi rejoices when she discovers that Ezinma was still alive after many years after she was born. Ezinma later became the little moon that shone upon Ekwefi. Ekwefi’s love for her daughter and fear of losing her is put to the test when prietess Chielo takes Ezinma away in the middle of the night. Even though she was scared, Ekwefi swiftly replies when asked, “I am following Chielo” (103). Because Ekwefi fears that her only daughter might get abducted or hurt, she finds the courage to fight back her fear of the gods by showing she was more desperate to keep her child safe. Her fear of the gods were easily overwhelmed as she fears losing her child