Failure In Things Fall Apart

At an early age we are taught that success is good and failure is bad. We learn that if we succeed at something that in return we will get some type of a reward and if we fail we get some type of punishment. Having this drilled into our minds, when we experience personal fear it can be hard to overcome our emotions. To fail means to be unsuccessful in achieving one’s goal. No one wants to fail or be known as a failure; therefore, we try to avoid it, but avoiding failure is not always a good thing. Through failure we gain experience and knowledge that ultimately leads us to reaching our potential. In both novels, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Chebe and Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, the authors use Okonkwo and Kurtz’s personalities and their pressures of social and natural environments to cause their own personal failures.
In the novel, Things Fall Apart, Chebe begins by saying how Okonkwo, who is the main character of the story, is well known throughout the nine villages due to throwing Amalinze the Cat. Amalinze is a great wrestler from Umuofia to Mbaino and is known to be unbeaten for the last seven years. One day in a fight Okonkwo just threw him and ever since then his …show more content…
Kurtz die believing that they have died due to their failures. Both of the character’s personalities and their mind set of always wanting to succeed is what ultimately caused their own personal failures. They were so fixed on the thought of success and being the best that they didn’t realize that it is okay to fail. There is a well-known quote by Gene Kranz, who is a retired NASA Flight Director, which says “Failure is not an option”, but the truth is failure is an option. What really matters is how we deal with failure. In the case of Okonkwo and Mr. Kurtz, they did not handle failure at all because for them it was unacceptable. They would rather be dead than to live a life of