Fathers Influence and Failed Dreams: A Comparative Analysis of Things Fall Apart and Death of a Salesman

Abstract

Comparison Essay: Things Fall Apart and Death of a Salesman The relationship between a father and son can often be described as an experience full of pain and liberation. Fathers perceive that children ought to grow up like them despite their negative paternal influence, creating controversy on being successful and living a good life. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller are historical fiction that depicts their paternal influence's complexity. Okonkwo and Willy have negative perceptions of success. Okonkwo believed success is characterized by violence and masculinity, and Willy thinks of a well-liked businessman as being successful. Okonkwo has a very strained relationship with his father, Unoka, and ended up adopting opposite ideals. There is intense friction between Willy Loman and his son Biff. Biff is a traitor of his father’s expectations, and Willy believes that his son has let him down on the verge of achieving the American dream. Unoka was a failure and a debtor while Willy was a salesman, and both their sons had no interest in their father's envision for them. Nwoye Okonkwo’s son depicts Unoka’s character leading to Okonkwo disowning him. Within the play Death of a Salesman and the novel Things Fall Apart, the Authors utilize characterization to illustrate the failures within a father-son relationship. Every father has that ideal expectation of his children, especially his sons. They believe that their behavior and successes reflect their identity, reputation, and wellbeing. Unoka was not such a good father as he was regarded as a debtor, lazy, coward, and a failure in the Igbo community. Okonkwo had no barn to inherit from his lazy father, and he was always ashamed to be associated with him. He believed being successful is battling for the community and working hard. He strived to overshadow his father’s bad reputation. Unoka feared wars and could not stand blood. Okonkwo established a significant title in the Igbo culture by beating Amalinze, the unbeaten cat, for seven years in a wrestling contest. Okonkwo expected his son Nwoye to follow in his footsteps as a hardworking man, but he failed as his Nwoye took Unoka’s lousy character, which made him disown him. Willy pushes his son to pursue the American dream. He believes he is a perfect example of the American dream. Willy was always opposed to his father’s idea of becoming a salesman. Willy did not pay attention to his son Happy and continuously ignored him. He always treated him second-best, pushing Happy to have a desire to please him. He did not lay any expectations on him and continually laid his eyes on his favorite son Biff. Both authors show fathers' expectations and desire to emulate them in their path of success. Willy, Unoka, and Okonkwo were all fathers, and their character and expectations influenced their sons’ lives.  Okonkwo’s first son, Nwoye, was twelve years old but was already causing his father great anxiety for his incipient laziness. At any rate, that was how it looked to his father, and he sought to correct him by constant nagging and beating. And so Nwoye was developing into a sad-faced youth (Achebe 13-14). Okonkwo’s relationship with Unoka affected the way he treated his son Nwoye. Okonkwo could see too much Unoka in him and disowned him as his son. By abusing and disowning his son, Okonkwo established a new trend in his family father son detest in his family. Unoka’s character influenced how Okonkwo raised his son. Unoka’s bad reputation played a role in stirring Okonkwo out of cowardice, laziness, and failure. It was a stepping stone for his hard work and success in the Igbo community. He had three wives, eight children, a store of yams, titles, a shrine for his ancestors, and his hut called an Obi. However, Okonkwo’s relationship with Nwoye was discorded. Despite their blood bond, they lost respect and affection and no longer considered each other's family. Nwoye joined the missionaries and pursued the new religion, which was always against Okonkwo’s dreams. Okonkwo could not watch his community invaded and taken over by the white men, and he ended up committing suicide. Willy’s attempt to push his son to pursue the American dream made Biff free himself from him. He repeatedly upheld that being a salesman is an ideal opportunity as one will always be liked. Biff collided with his father by expressing his interest in manual labor on a farm. Willy’s ideals were seen fake after his son caught him indulging in an affair. Biff called his father fake and a cheat, and the moment led him to move with no clear direction. Willy made his sons a disappointment both to him and themselves. Biff was thirty-four, and he had no clear plan for his life. Biff forced his father to face reality by failing to pursue his dream, which led to his destruction. He clings to the hope that someday Biff will fulfill his dream as a significant business success despite its uncertainty. The desperate hope eventually leads him to commit suicide in the end. Biff gets out of the confines of the material of success, and the well-likeness promise laid by his father and realized that he could be happy without his father’s dreams. In the end, Happy got tired of being overlooked by his father and disowned him; ‘no, that's not my father; that's just a guy’ (Miller 91). His ambition and successes were not appreciated, and he felt too lonely. He could not be happy in the business world, and he resorted to women to try satisfaction. Both stories portrayed a father's negative impact as a significant player in shaping their sons' future lives. Okonkwo was discorded with his son while Willy committed suicide in a delusion that his son will one day pursue the American Dream, which was unrealistic. In conclusion, both Things Fall Apart and Death of a Salesman portrays the strife in father-son relationships characterized by pain and hope to create a perfect future for them. Okonkwo wants his son to take after him but instead takes after Unoka, his father, with a failed legacy of laziness, cowardice, and failure in the Igbo community. Okonkwo disowns his son and is not happy about Nwoye’s step to pursue Christianism; it tears him apart; he perceives it as a shame and failed dreams. Willy wants his son Biff to be a great businessman, a salesman. In the end, children are not interested in their confines and leave to achieve their dreams. Both plays show fathers' struggle for identity since their sons reflect their reputation and failures. Nwoye forfeits his father's dream to battle the community and becomes a Christian, Willy pursues his dream of Manual labor, declining to be a salesman, and Happy disowns his father for continually overlooking him. The aftermath is pain and discord between the fathers and their sons. The main protagonists' Willy and Okonkwo, end up committing suicide for failed struggles and unfulfilled dreams. Work cited. Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman: Revised Edition. Penguin, 1996. Okpewho, Isidore, ed. Chinua Achebe's Things fall apart: a casebook. Oxford University Press on Demand, 2003.