Nature Vs.

Nurture: Things Fall Apart

by Mateo Garcia
How is nature so different from nurture? A lot of people dont understand the
difference. In the novel Things Fall Apart, the author, Chinua Achebe explains how
nurture is more important than nature in this book. I believe in my claim that the
characters I talk about are more affected by nurture than nature in this book. Nurture is
more described as care given a child or organism that affects development and/or attitude.
I am writing an essay about this book because I am highly intrigued by this book and
wanting to explain to you what its affected more by.
I think one character that is affected by nurture was Nwoye, the son of
Okonkwo another character in this story. In the novel Things Fall Apart Chapter 2,
Page 13 the text says, Okonkwos first son is Nwoye twelve years of age had grew
Okonkwos anxiety because of his laziness.. His father highly raised to obey his
rules. Nwoye has affected by nurture in this book because he is disowned by his
father. (172) Nwoye is no longer my son nor your brother.
Another character that is influenced by nurture was Okonkwo.
Okonkwo is affected highly by nurture in this statement in Chapter 1, Page 13,
Okonkwo his whole life is dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness.
This statement shows that Okonkwo was a man who is not supposed to be scared of
anything, but is afraid of non-succes. Nurture highly grew him to think this and it
teaches him to be scared of non-success. He never inherited money by his father
stated in chapter 1 page 18,He neither inherited a barn nor a title nor even a young
wife.
In conclusion, the characters I explained in my opinion were both highly
affected by nurture because the characters were both taken care of rather than treated
upon their looks. Growing up to believe in one belief was hard, and Nwoye was one
man who wanted something different, he was hated upon the fact he was set aside by
his father because he wanted to follow the christians. He wanted different, he wanted
something other than the right to believe in his circle of religion. Nwoye stood out
from the rest of Okonkwos sons.