“Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe is the story of a man named Okonkwo who is successful and physically strong. However, Okonkwo is emotionally unavailable and is afraid of being seen as weak and having others compare him to his father. The climax of the book is when Okonkwo does something considered immoral by killing a boy he had taken in and raised as his own for three years, because he did not want to be seen as weak. Okonkwo is governed by an obsession: to hate everything his father had loved. Okonkwo's birthright was fear, fear of becoming like his father. His whole life was dominated by fear, fear of failure and weakness. The irony of the story is that Okonkwo's life ends just as his father's did. Both father and son died in ways considered appalling: Unoka died of swelling, and Okonkwo took his own life. Okonkwo struggles to do everything differently than his father, which results in Okonkwo bringing pain to his family, becoming an arrogant person, and ending his life in a way that is considered an abomination to the tribe. Okonkwo was ashamed of his father for never taking any title or wealth during his lifetime. Okonkwo's father, Unoka, was lazy and careless but was also poetic and sensitive. Unoka never thought about the future, he only thought about living in the moment. Music is what brought Unoka to life, he loved playing the flute and when he did so his face was beaming with bliss and peace. Unoka was a lover of beauty and an admirer of joy, but he knew well the pain and contempt of his clanmates (Scheub, 2003). Even as a child, Okonkwo resented his father for being lazy and borrowing money from ot...... middle of paper ......looks down on those who had not yet achieved the same success . He feared failure and weakness so much that it destroyed his life. He ended his life because he no longer had the will to live in a tribe that he found weak and feminine and he killed himself because everything had fallen apart for him. Works Cited Cobham R. (2002). Modern Critical Interpretations: Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. Retrieved from http://www.humanities.wisc.edu/programs/great-texts/things-fall-apart/center-resources.htmlIyasere S. (1998). Understanding Things Fall Apart: Selected Essays and Criticisms. Retrieved from http://www.humanities.wisc.edu/programs/great-texts/things-fall-apart/center-resources.htmlScheub H. (2003). Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart: A Casebook. Retrieved from http://www.humanities.wisc.edu/programs/great-texts/things-fall-apart/center-resources.html