Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

            Pride makes people shift their focus to themselves because they are too caught up with their needs and their wants. Extreme pride is shown in the novel, "Things Fall Apart", by Chinua Achebe, as Okonkwo, the main character, struggles to keep his power while the white men take over his village. It is Okonkwo's tragic flaw, extreme pride, which got in the way and led him to failure. Okonkwo's tragic flaw was extreme pride, which led him to have high expectations, fear of looking weak, and to separate from his family. .

             Okonkwo's extreme pride led him to do many things throughout the book, like having high expectations. The book "Things Fall Apart" says, "The man who had contradicted him had no titles. That was why he had called him a woman. Okonkwo knew how to kill a man's spirit " (Achebe 26). At a kindred meeting, a man had contradicted Okonkwo and since the man had no titles Okonkwo called him a woman. This is a good example of high expectations because Okonkwo thought men with no titles should not be allowed to go to the kindred meetings. In the novel Okonkwo says, "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 " (Achebe 33). Okonkwo threats his sons to make sure he kills all of their laziness. This shows how Okonkwo expected a lot from his sons because if they were not hard workers he would rather have them dead. Okonkwo's need to be superior to all others around him was an outcome from his extreme pride.

             Okonkwo's extreme pride also led him to the fear of looking weak. Achebe informs the reader, "his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness (Achebe 13). In other words, fear of failure and weakness is what dominated Okonkwo's whole life. The quote shows how he is scared of looking weak because if he is, he will not be the strong man that his pride makes him out to be. Another quote from the novel, "he heard Ikemefuna cry, 'My father, they have killed me!' as he ran toward him dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down.

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