2. Approach of the Study

order to avoid his fathers mistake. By hard working, Okonkwo can achieve his success and fame. He wants other people to admire and appreciate his success. The conflict against his fathers misfortune also makes him as a man who cannot accept any failure and weakness. He is a superior man in his village, especially in his family. These are two of Okonkwos personalities, which dominate his reasons why he commits suicide in the end of the story.

4. 1. 1. Fear of failure

Achebe never reveals Okonkwos character when he was a kid since the very beginning of Things Fall Apart. The story is opened when Okonkwo has achieved all his glorious moments. As a very successful man, Okonkwo needs a long process to achieve his glory. Okonkwos turning point is his past time when he has a conflict against his father. It is his hatred and fear toward his fathers failure and weakness. This conflict also has a significant role in making Okonkwos character. Little Okonkwo was treated so badly just because of his fathers failure and weakness. He lost his happy childhood. He was very sad because most of his playmates did not accept him friendly. As an innocent boy, he had to take all mockeries just because he was a son of an empty man, an agbala. That is why Okonkwo promises to himself that he does not want to be like his father. He hates his father and everything that represents his fathers failure and weakness. Even as a little boy he had resented his fathers failure and weakness, and even now he still remembered how he had suffered when a playmate had told him that his father was agbala. That was how Okonkwo first came to know that agbala was not only a name for a woman, it could also mean a man who had taken no title. And so Okonkwo was ruled by one passion— to hate everything that his father Unoka had loved. p.13 The fear of Unokas failure and weakness has covered Okonkwos life sin he was a boy. The domination of this fear in his life is so great. Therefore, by hard working Okonkwo can achieve his success and fame. The conflict against his fathers misfortune also makes him as a man who cannot accept any failure and weakness. Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by the fear, the fear of failure and weakness. p.13

4. 1. 2. Stern and Bad Temper

Okonkwos unhappy childhood makes him grow to be a very stern person. He is willing to rule his life rigorously in order to avoid his fathers mistake. He spends most of his time only for working. He realizes that hard working is the key of his success. He wants to end his miserable life by choosing his own life. He is tired of living under his fathers shadow. His strong intention, to achieve a success, is shown when he succeeded in defeating Amalinze the Cat, a tough and famous wrestler, in a wrestling match. Suddenly, his life changes from a poor young boy into a very well known wrestler. This victory leads him to achieve another success that awaits him in the years to come. His obsession, to avoid his fathers mistake and to be a successful man, in fact changes him to be a very temperamental man. He is too strict in managing