Instant Access To 100,000+ Essays!

Everybody in the world is affected by the environment that they are placed in. The environment can affect a person in small ways and large ways. Wearing a jacket in cold weather is a smaller effect of the environment. In African writer Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, the main character Okonkwo is affected by his environment. He is constantly afraid that people will think he is like his father, who was weak and lazy before he died. This is a much larger effect, because it completely changes Okonkwo’s personality. Because of his weak father, Okonkwo is pressured to act mean and heartless for fear of being thought weak. Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, is a lazy and weak man. He has no title in the village of Umofia, and his only real skill is playing the flute, which is almost worthless. The skill that is really necessary in Umofia is farming, and Unoka is terrible at this. He is lazy and does not work as hard as other men. Unoka is also deeply in debt, and he owes more than he can ever make in the rest of his life. Although he is Oknonkwo’s father, these characteristics rubbed Okonkwo the wrong way, and he condemned him at an ear