Identity Issues In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

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To understand why the main characters of Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe; Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë; Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley; and, Paul’s Case, by Willa Cather, all have issues with their identity, one needs to look further into their upbringing and their surroundings. For Heathcliff, the Monster, and Okonkwo, they all suffer identity issues because of how they were brought up in this world. For Paul, it was less about how he was brought up and more about how he felt as he got older and realized he did not truly fit in where he was – which, also happened to the Monster and furthered his anger at his creator. According to Willa Cather's Lost Boy: 'Paul's Case' and Bohemian Tramping by Terrell Scott, in reference to Paul, from …show more content…
His upbringing by a father figure who did not represent what his tribe saw to be a true man effected his identity deeply. He lived his whole life thriving to become the polar opposite of his father, who “. . . was a failure. He was poor and his wife and children had barely enough to eat.” (Achebe 5). Okonkwo on the other hand was strong and masculine, he had many wives and children, he had a lot of land and a high rank within the clan; however, he was unhappy. His struggle with who he was ended up causing him to murder one of the people who he, genuinely, cared about – which was rare for him, since caring was not something he saw to be masculine. He beat his wives and showed no affection to his children, he was eager to jump in to a fight. His life’s purpose was to live to prove that he was not his father. Now, the Monster, in Frankenstein, has an eccentric crisis going on. He, more or less, is abandoned as a child to the world. As soon as he is given life, he is rejected by his creator. He wanders the realm looking for someone to accept him, to love him, but he never finds it. His creator is too horrified too look at him, let alone accept him for who he is, because he is “grotesque” and a “monster” (hence being called the
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