In the novels Things Fall Apart, written by China Achebe, and The Things They Carried, written by Tim O'Brien, the characters are confronted with their fate. Howard Thurman once said, “Fate is the raw material of experience.” It arrives uninvited and often unexpectedly. Destiny is what a man does with these raw materials. » Destiny is an inevitable and predestined event for a person. A character in every novel faces this fate. The two characters react very differently. Okonkwo, the protagonist of Things Fall Apart, has the exhausting memory of his father stuck in his head. This memory is part of the “raw materials” that lead him to face his destiny. Tim O'Brien, however, has experience of war and death. His experience demonstrates how extreme circumstances, such as war, can transform a rational person into one who commits unthinkable and cruel acts. Both characters have extremely negative experiences that lead them to face their destiny head on. Okonkwo is a character struggling to make his way in a world that he believes values ​​manliness. His greatest fear is becoming his father. He represents everything that is described as “manly”. His father was a man with loose features. He was poor and his main interest was music. Okonkwo calls his father feminine. He associates masculinity with aggression. This is the main reason why he tries to define himself as the manly man of the society. He achieved great success both socially and financially. He married three wives and had numerous children with each. He runs his house with fear. He frequently beats his wives and even threatens to kill them. He is seen as a powerful, rich and violent man. His entire outlook on how he lives his life is based on being the opposite of his father. His experience of living with someone he was so ashamed of pushes him to become a person of violence and authority. "But despite these disadvantages, he had begun, during his father's lifetime, to lay the foundations for a prosperous future. It was slow and painful. But he threw himself into it like a man possessed. And indeed, he was possessed by fear of the despicable life and shameful death of his father” (Achebe, 18 years old) Okonkwo consciously opposes anything that is perceived as feminine or gentle. He struggles to be as different from his own as possible. deceased father.