Literary Analysis Project

The ability to adapt while maintaining your own self image and ideals is very hard to develop.
Having the courage to say what is on your mind is an invaluable life skill that I believe all people
should have. But, those words must be said with the utmost respect for those to whom you are
speaking. Which is an addition to being able to disagree with someone and still hold respect for
them as an individual person. This brings us to two cases. One of which shows how someone
became too discouraged from taking action and eventually gave up everything. While the other
showed unending persistence in spite of tremendous adversity. From a psychoanalyst
psychologist’ perspective, Okonkwo, from Achebe’s ​Things Fall Apart,​ and Chris Gardner, from
the movie ​The Pursuit of Happyness,​ are two people that illustrate two different psyches that
attribute to their actions. I will attempt to analyze, compare, and contrast these two characters
and their situations.
Before jumping into analyzing characters, a little bit about what reasons are behind actions.
Most actions are done in combination with a motive. A motive being “a reason that provides a
single explanation for all different behaviors” (Bernstein 282). Motivation can come from four
different factors biological, emotional, cognitive, and social factors. Each person can draw from
one of these factors on different amounts. That means to say that emotional factors may have
more impact on a person than, let’s say, cognitive factors. But all contribute to how someone
feels and acts. Both Chris and Okonkwo express different forms of motivation and each have
their own perceptions of the world around them. These factors help explain how and why these
characters did what they did.
First we’ll dive more into Chris’ rags to riches story. Chris has invested heavily in a bone
density scanner. He has no other day job so he goes around San Francisco trying to sell these
devices. The problem is that bone density scanner are only a marginal improvement over the
current technologies but at a much higher price. Chris has a very difficult time selling these
devices but he has to sell at least three a month to cover the expenses for basic living like a
mortgage, food, and the supports for a 5 year old son. This is where his life starts to fall apart.
In the recent months he hasn’t been able to meet his quota. Resulting in many undesirable
events. His wife has had to take many more shifts at the laundromat, his car has been booted
due to having no payment on its tickets, and he is months behind on his rent. Finally deciding
that the bone density scanners are not the way to meet his family’s financial needs, he decided
to pursue an unpaid internship with Dean Witter, a brokerage and security firm. The internship
is a very competitive competition with twenty admitted and only one kept at the end of six
months. Despite tremendous adversity like his wife leaving him, being evicted from his
apartment, and having no food, he manages to make it to the end of the internship and is the
one selected to move on.
Next, we’ll take a look at Okonkwo. He is the son of Unoka. Unoka was a very irresponsible
man. The highlight of his youth was playing the flute at the annual harvest where lots of people
would gather around him and listen to his music. But he never amounted to anything beyond
his flute playing. He never established a respectable living so he was always borrowing money
from other people. The majority of it went to feeding his alcohol abuse and whatever was left
was just enough to provide for his family. He became the laughingstock of the village. Unoka
died leaving his son, Okonkwo, with an insurmountable amount of debt, certainly not what
other sons are left with after their father’s death. Yet Okonkwo was able to pick up his father's
pieces and create his own prosperous life. His life began to fall apart when he killed his
surrogate son Ikemefuna, and when the white men invaded his village. “The white man was
very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his
foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer
act like one, He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart”
(Achebe 145). Okonkwo has suffered hardships such as being exiled from his clan, killing his
son, and watching his clan start to turn their backs to their traditional ways. The end of
Okonkwo’s story ends with him committing suicide upon the realization that his clan will not go
to war with the white men, cementing his own ultimate inability to change and adapt.
As it stands, these two characters have both experienced tremendous adversity throughout
their lives. But yet their two paths went in very different directions. Chris’ story exemplified
someone who persevered through everything. While Okonkwo’s story exemplified someone
who ultimately gave up on their situation. The ultimate difference between these two
characters are that one gave up and gave into his situation, while the other never gave up and
decided to fight back against all odds. Given that the two characters arcs and situations are very
different, the other main difference, that I want to highlight between the two is their goals.
“Goal setting is as psychologically important in business as it is in personal life… Goals are also
motivational, as working towards a goal can give everyone in an organization a sense of
purpose and help to energize them” (Magloff 1). Chris had a very clear goal, to provide a
healthy life for his son, and nothing would stop him from making that possible. While Okonkwo
really had no other goals for his life after he was exiled. When he saw his clan disagree with his
viewpoint and goal of removing the white men, he took his own life. This is why it is very
important for people to both A: adopt an adaptable personality, rather than a resistant
personality and B: always keep a goal in mind to help motivate themselves. It very well may be
the difference between becoming a Chris or an Okonkwo. Of course, most people will not go to
the extreme as Okonkwo did, but it does help to conduct a productive, happy, and overall
prosperous life.