The Significance of an Accepting Father in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and Peter Weir’s Dead Poets Society (Essay Sample)

In the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and Peter Weir’s Dead Poets Society, the fathers show similar characteristics of inadequate parenting skills. Both fathers desire for their son to be successful, but by trying to accomplish this they are too harsh on their sons. Okonkwo’s son Nwoye and Tom’s son Neil are both held to high standards by their fathers. Each father values their view of success for their son too much and is unable to understand what their son values. The fathers do take into consideration what their son is interested in and believe it will distract them from success. This results in the fathers essentially losing their son and exemplifies the importance of an exemplary relationship.

When it comes to expectations from the fathers, both fathers want their son to be successful. In the movie, Tom holds high expectations for his son Neil when it comes to his career after boarding school. Tom commands how he wants Neil to go to college and become a doctor. Tom believes that going to college and becoming a doctor is an example of being successful in life. He wants his son to go down this path because he thinks it is what is best for Neil. Tom has his mindset on Neil becoming a doctor and nothing will change his mind.

Okonkwo also wants to see his son succeed and be one of the best men in the village. When Nwoye and Ikemefuna were preparing the yams they would mess up and Okonkwo would threaten to beat them. He understands they are too young to understand how to prepare yams, but he wants his son to be a “great farmer and a great man” (33). Okonkwo feels that teaching his son how to farm properly at a young age will make him a great farmer. He believes that teaching his son at a young age will make him more successful when he becomes older. Okonkwo thinks that being a great yam farmer and having the most yams shows how successful one is. Nowye being successful is all Okonkwo wants because success is what Okonkwo strives for. Okonkwo wants his son to succeed like Tom and in doing this both fathers make their sons do things they do not want any part in doing.

Succeeding is the end result each father wants for their son, but they both hold values for their son to become successful. Okonkwo and Tom both hold high standards for their sons in order to see them succeed and expect perfection. Tom believes Neil must do well in school and anything that might distract him from this must be gotten rid of. When Tom sees the extracurriculars Neil is taking he is upset and goes to the school and makes him quit the yearbook council. This action in the film makes Neil upset, but Tom wants no distractions that could potentially lower Neil’s grades. Toms wants Neil to spend more time doing homework so he can achieve higher grades and live up to his high expectations. 

Okonkwo shows the same values many times throughout the novel when he beats Nwoye for doing something wrong. He holds Nwoye up to high standards in hope that he will learn from his mistakes and become a great man. When Okonkwo talks about what he wants Nwoye to be, he says how he wants “Nwoye to grow into a tough young man” (52). Okonkwo views being tough as never showing emotion other than anger, working hard, and being a warrior. These are high standards for Nwoye considering how he is compared to Unuko, who is very lazy. Both fathers hold their sons to high standards in order for them to succeed, but it inevitably leads to their downfall.

Both fathers feel the results were horrible because they ended up losing their sons. This shows that both fathers fail at raising their sons and their relationship is weak. When Tom tells Neil he is going to military school, Neil kills himself after accepting the fact that he will never pursue his dream of becoming an actor. Tom mourns the loss of his son after his son takes his own life because he feels he is to blame. Neil killing himself shows that Tom crushes his dream of becoming an actor and becoming an actor is what Neil wants to do in life. Tom ruins the thing Neil loves to do in life and this makes Neil feel like he has nothing to live for. This shows that their relationship is weak because Tom never listens to what Neil wants to do in life. 

The same is true with Okonkwo when he also loses his son. He does not understand his son's values and only wants his son to do what he thinks is best for him. When Okonkwo confronts his son for being seen with the missionaries, he punishes him. He questions his own son and wonders how he “[got] a son like Nwoye” (153). Instead of  trying to understand Nwoye’s different beliefs, Okonkwo wonders why his son is the way he is. This results in Okonkwo giving up on his son because he is unable to understand his son’s differences. Since he wants Nwoye to be the same as himself, he does not accept Nwoye's differences and it leads to the end of their relationship. This shows that Okonkwo has failed at his role as a father and Okonkwo is unable to accept that he has failed so he blames the god’s for sending him Nwoye as his son. Both fathers exemplify poor treatment of their son and in the end it shows what will happen if the father has a bad relationship with his son

In both the movie and the novel, the parenting skills of the fathers are lacking to a point where the fathers are seen as an authoritarian figure rather than a father. Both fathers have their minds set on what they want in their sons and hold them to high standards. When their sons show interest in other subjects, the fathers both refuse to hear what their sons have to say and punish them. This is poor fathering skills and leads to both fathers losing their sons. The message of both stories show the importance of fatherhood and what happens if your father-son relationship is not strong.

Works Cited

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart, New York, Penguin Books, 2017.

Dead Poets Society. Directed by Peter Weir, performances by Robert Sean Leonard and 

Kurtwood  Smith, Touchstone Pictures, 1989.