Okonkwo In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

Okonkwo is a tragic hero because has a tragic flaw, is noble, and experiences reversal of fortune. Okonkwo’s tragic flaws include short temper and not wanting to be like his father. He is noble due to his titles and respect throughout Umoafia. His reversal of fortune happens at a funeral.

Answer: In Chinua Achebe’s novel “Things Fall Apart” Okonkwo is a tragic hero. Aristotle’s Poetics defines a Tragic Hero as a good man of high status who displays a tragic flaw ‘hamartia’ and experiences a dramatic reversal ‘peripeteia’, as well as an intense moment of recognition ‘anagnorisis’. Okonkwo is a leader and hardworking member of the Igbo community of Umuofia whose tragic flaw is his great fear of weakness and failure. Okonkwo’s fall from grace in the Igbo community and eventual suicide, makes Okonkwo a tragic hero by Aristotle’s definition.

In the beginning of the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, we are introduced to Okonkwo, the protagonist of the story. Throughout the world there are many novels where the protagonist is a hero, the person who fixes the problem. Okonkwo, however, is not this type of character. He is not perfect and does not fix the problem, he gets angry at it. Many people believe he is an overall good man. On the other hand I believe Okonkwo is deeply flawed because of his anger and abuse to his family.

A character with a tragic flaw is one who consistently makes a particular error in their actions and this eventually leads to their doom. Okonkwo, a perfect tragic character, is driven by his fear of unmanliness, which causes him to act harshly toward his fellow tribesmen, his family and himself. He judges all people by how manly they act. In Okonkwo’s eyes a man is a violent, hard working, wealthy person and anyone who does not meet these standards he considers weak.

In the book “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe, we see the effect the white missionaries had on an African tribe and the antihero Okonkwo. The main character Okonkwo is a tragic hero. Achebe depicts Okonkwo as a Shakespearean hero with a tragic flaw, that tragic flaw is the fact that he will do anything in his power not to be a weak man like his father Unoka. Okonkwo did what he did because he hated his father and would do anything in his power to be the exact opposite of his father.

Like Oedipus, Okonkwo is a tragic hero because his story starts with him being strong, feared, and a lady-killer. Unfortunately, he then kills his son and a court leader which leads to his downfall and ban from his home. Hamartia is the characteristic of a tragic hero that leads to his downfall. Okonkwo’s hamartia was the fact that he does not express his emotions. His lack of expressions and emotions led him to kill his son and “mistakingly,” a court leader. Catharsis is the emotional cleansing part of the story. Catharsis is present in Things Fall Apart when Okonkwo commits suicide and goes against all of his “rules” like no becoming like his

Okonkwo had a lot of flaws. He was stuck on having a good reputation and raising the best family he could. He feared for his children to become like his father and his wives to become lazy. He got mad frequently and took it out on his family if they did anything wrong. But one of his flaws were involved with the killing of his adopted son Ikemefuna. A group of elders had gone with Okonkwo and Ikemefuna to a forest, where one of them swung their machete at the poor boy and destroyed. Ikemefuna ran to Okonkwo for help, but “dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down” (61). The man was afraid of being thought of as weak. Then again, he had always had a tough image around others. Of course, accidents happened quite a lot for Okonkwo because he accidentally killed a higher up in the village during Ezeudu’s funeral and “he could not return to the clan after seven years” (124). He had to start all over with his family and return to his motherland. Life was never fun for Okonkwo. Hard work and strict punishment was basically what he was known for. So when Okonkwo and men from Umuofia went to visit the District Commissioner, they were taken as prisoners and whipped along with being shaven until a certain price was paid. Once they were released and they went home, people in the village were accepting until “nobody else spoke but they noticed the long stripes on Okonkwo’s

    The way in which Okonkwo took his own life can also lead to the argument that he was no hero, but that he took the easy way out. "The pathetic is achieved when the protagonist is, by virtue of his witlessness, his insensitivity, or the very air he gives off, incapable of grappling with a much superior force" (Miller). It can be agreed that his death was somewhat pathetic as opposed to heroic. It is also hypocritical that Okonkwo worked so hard to be respected and to stand up for his own customs, and yet took his own life, which in the clan was considered an abomination. "It is an offense against the Earth, and a man who commits it will not be

Tragic heroes are literary characters whose actions and judgment errors inescapably lead to their own self-destruction. In the book, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, our tragic hero is Okonkwo. Okonkwo is a man whose biggest fear is being like his father, meaning to be a failure. His actions usually consist of an aggressive, turbulent temper. Even though he appears to be a bad man (personality wise), we can say he’s pretty hardworking and determined. His biggest judgment error in this book, led to his own self-destruction, was killing Ikemefuna, a boy from another village who was sent to Umuofia in the result of a crime that was committed. Even though the killing of Ikemefuna was an accident, this part of the story was the first step to take us

In most stories there is a distinct hero. One person that stands above all else, and really shows the human struggle. It is safe to asume that the main character in the hero in most stories. Howerver in the book Things Fall Apart the main character Okonkwo does not show heroistic atributes. At times during the book, he even could be classified as the antagonist. Okwonkwo was not a hero.

This makes sense because Okonkwo was not highborn. Okonkwo did not have much when growing up. He was a poor child, who which his father, Unoka, was always in debt. Part of being a tragic hero is being highborn. Although Okonkwo wasn’t highborn, he eventually became wealthy and noble throughout the story influenced his human characteristics and feelings. Lastly, he has a tragic downfall, hanging himself, due to his hubris, violence, and fear of weakness. Therefore, Okonkwo is a tragic hero.

In the book Things Fall apart by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo is a high status ruler in the village of Umuofia. Although he is very respected throughout the village, he has many flaws that make him a tragic hero. A tragic hero is described as a character who is a high ruler of a society. They are not thoroughly good or bad, but in a sense are better than everyone. Tragic heroes usually have a tragic flaw that they realize when it is already too late. Okonkwo has many of these characteristics. He is a high ruler of society who thinks he is better than everyone, and has a tragic flaw of being afraid of weakness, which he realizes when it is too late.

As stated in Chapter Two on pages 13 to 14, Okonkwo ruled his household with a hand so heavy that his entire family lives in perpetual fear of his fiery temper and impatience. Okonkwo is a very rash person and, when in a fit of rage, does not think about the consequences of his actions, which inadvertently leads him to his own downfall. In committing these actions, it is not ludicrous to believe that Okonkwo will later receive consequences due to the immorality of these actions.

On the other hand, another characteristic of Okonkwo that causes him to be seen as a tragic hero is his struggle to deal with the crumbling Igbo culture around him. Upon his return to Umuofia from his motherland, everything has changed among the Igbo people. The white men had completely torn apart a culture which at one point seemed to be so strong. Some had even been converted into Christians and almost everyone was questioning their own beliefs. According to Stephen Criswell, when Okonkwo returned, he had a decision to make between standing up for what he believed in and against what he hated, or complying with the white man’s way and being like everyone else in the tribe(Criswell). Unlike the others, Okonkwo would not back down, and that is why he is a hero. The Igbo culture was slowly being destroyed by the

In his poetic, a tragic hero cannot be an eminently good man. The suffering of such a man will be shocking. The tragic hero neither can be a bad man nor a villain. According to Aristotle, “The tragic hero is a man who is not eminently good and just, yet whose misfortune is bought about not by voice, but by the some error of judgement” (Aristotle, 1978). The misfortune of such a man will lead to downfall. In Things fall Apart, the main protagonist Okonkwo is considered as tragic hero and he has the all the noble characters. Oknokwo was very successful and renowned in his community. He was the leader of Ibo society and he was also a famous wrestler and successful farmer. With these characters of successful in many ways, he was very wealthy man, hold a high position in the community, he had three wives, and is also best wrestler and worrier. He also rules his family with