1. Fear and hate have a simple, but sometimes illusory, relationship. Numerous people, including Shakespeare, have defined this relationship as meaning that hatred originates from fear. In the first five chapters of Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo's seemingly unrelated fear of weakness generates his unmistakable hatred towards the unfortunate recipients. Okonkwo has a “fear of failure and weakness” (13), exemplified by his father who “was actually a coward and could not bear the sight of blood” (6). This sufficiently explains Okonkwo's deepest "fear of himself, lest he should seem like his father" (13). When he tries to find the opposite of weakness to differentiate himself from his father, Okonkwo decides to “hate everything that his father Unoka had loved. One of these things was kindness and another was idleness" (13). Consequently, Okonkwo's hatred of various interpretations of weakness, failure, and anyone who embodies them signals his underlying fear that he might "be found resembling his father" (13). While not as elusive, this relationship between fe...