Why is Okonkwo so fearless in the face of death?

In Chinua Achebe's debut novel Things Fall Apart, the protagonist Okonkwo is presented as a strong warrior who is occupied with living up to his own lofty masculine standards of success and fulfillment. Part of his masculine posturing manifests itself in his outwardly courageous, warrior nature. He is determined to be an effective warrior, and this determination makes him unafraid to fight and be destructive. While Okonkwo is in fact fearless in the face of potential death, I argue that he is not as brave as he would have his peers believe that he is. Indeed, Okonkwo is incredibly self-conscious about how he is perceived in the Igbo society. He works hard to fit into his own narrow definition of "manliness," and he is scared of being perceived as weak or feminine. So while he is fearless in many respects, he is ultimately afraid of being weak, and this, in part, leads to his downfall.