Okonkwo In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

An increasing amount of contemporary literature traces its origins back to the early works of Greece. For ages, humans have fascinated themselves with the impossible notion of perfection. Unrealistic expectations placed on those who were thought to be the noblest or most honorable individuals have repeatedly led to disappointment and frustration, either on the part of those particular individuals or those they influence. Classic characters, like Odysseus and Oedipus for instance, exemplify the excess of some positive character trait, like pride or honesty, which ironically leads to their personal misfortune.

A character who makes negative interactions with others is definitely someone who’s unsympathetic.The main character okonkwo from the novel Thing Fall Apart is a good example of a character who is unsympathetic.This is because his actions and interactions with others makes us despise him .In addition many of the characters seemed as if it was hard to have a close bond with okonkwo,and for a lot of readers that makes us uncomfortable.The relationships okonkwo had with his youngest wife Ojiugo and his other wife Ekwefi make him unsympathetic .These two characters both had a similar relationship.

The character of Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart was driven by fear, a fear of change and losing his self-worth. He needed the village of Umuofia, his home, to remain untouched by time and progress because its system and structure were the measures by which he assigned worth and meaning in his own life. Okonkwo required this external order because of his childhood and a strained relationship with his father, which was also the root of his fears and subsequent drive for success. When the structure of Umuofia changed, as happens in society, Okonkwo was unable to adapt his methods of self-evaluation and ways of functioning in the world; the life he was determined to live could not survive a new environment and collapsed around

This novel is the definitive tragic model about the dissolution of the African Ibo culture by Nigerian author, Chinua Achebe. Okonkwo, a great and heroic leader, is doomed by his inflexibility and hubris. He is driven by fear of failure.

His tragic downfall truly begins when his is sent away because of an accidental murder of a boy. Okonkwo and his family are exiled from the tribe for seven years and Okonkwo is stripped of the fruits of his hard work. While he is away the white missionaries move into the village. They preach against the culture and its violent ways, causing Okonkwo to become saturated with rage. Seven years later, Okonkwo is able to return. He plans to reestablish himself and his position with the help of his family. However, Umofia is not as it once was. The white men have moved in and dismantled the tribe with their laws and government. Okonkwo wishes to fight, but the clan does not agree with his suggestion. After realizing the fate of the village, Okonkwo chooses to take his life. He would rather die than watch everything he had worked for fall apart because of weak people. His tragic flaw, a fear of weakness, is so strong it destroyed him.

In Things Fall Apart Okonkwo is defeated by forces that are beyond his control because when he goes back to his village he sees that it has changed and is more religious and ends up committing suicide. “Then they came to the tree from which Okonkwos body was dangling and they stopped dead.” The evidence supports the claim because when the commissioners came to Okonkwos compound he was not there. The commissioners were led to a bush were led to a tree on which okonkwos body was dangling. Okonkwo is defeated by forces that are beyond his control because when the commissioner found the tree Okonkwo was hanging off the tree.

In the novel Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo is portrayed as a respected and determined individual whose fatal flaw eventually works against him. Throughout the novel the readers are shown that Okonkwo has many of these Characteristics because he is obsessed with the idea of becoming just like his father. This becomes his flaw in the novel that puts him into exile and makes it hard for him to adjust to the changes that were made with in his village.

Throughout Okonkwo’s youth, he had a very troubling life. His father, Unoka, was a failure in every sense of the word. Unoka was a drunk and had an enormous amount of debt to his name that he never paid back. The only things that Okonkwo's father had going for him was his music. He was a tremendous flute player and that's all he really was known for other than being a poor, cowardly

A Hero’s Downfall “The key element in tragedy is that heroes and heroines are destroyed by that which seems to be their greatest strength” (Robert Shea). In Shea’s quote, a tragic hero’s greatest strength, instead becomes their greatest weakness and the hero’s fatal flaw. In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo is a very impressive and respectable figure feared throughout the villages, but falls due to his greatest assets that make him a hero, strength and respect, which become his fatal flaws in the end, making him a tragic hero.

He had been mistreated and had tried to act like a man of Umuofia, but he was met with disapproval by his peers. He even endured the torture of the white man's prison, where he, along with a few others, was beaten and starved. The court messengers would "…[come] in to taunt them and knock their shaven heads together"(195), which caused Okonkwo to be "...choked with hate"(195). Even the others who were persecuted with him didn't seem to care. Okonkwo was in complete desperation, unable to understand why his tribe was not acting like an Ibo tribe should.

In Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart, the protagonist Okonkwo is faced with numerous challenges. Okonkwo is a conflicted character whose negative attributes completely hinder his development as an individual. Chinua Achebe highlights the fact that Okonkwo is an ambiguous character whose pride and brash nature lead to his tragic demise, while illuminating Okonkwo’s positive attributes by pointing out his caring side. This goes in conjunction with the theme of the novel. Achebe perfectly illustrates the idea that individuals often portray the complete opposite of what they actually are.

His clan turns against him and refuse to stand up for themselves against the white men. Once Okonkwo realizes he’s alone he is found hung on a tree, having taken his own life. His fatal flaw is his fear of weakness and failure. This fear causes him to act out harshly to his people and his family, “Perhaps down in his heart

Things begin to fall apart when Okonkwo kills a young man and is exiled for seven years. Throughout the seven years, Okonkwo thinks only of his return to Umuofia and how he will rebuild his fame and fortune and how much he must have been misssed by his people. Upon his return,

Okonkwo’s main goal in his life is to earn as many titles as he can throughout his lifetime. As a young adult, “Okonkwo was clearly cut out for great things ... He was a wealthy farmer and he had two barn full of yams, and had just married his third wife. To crown it all he had taken two titles and had shown incredible prowess in two inter-tribal wars” (8). Okonkwo believes that his great success at a young age will make him happy, but when another religion and culture is introduced to his tribe his hard work means nothing. When Okonkwo returns from being banished from his clan for seven years he is disgusted with the fact that, “He had lost the chance to lead his warlike clan against the new 3religion, which, he was told, had gained ground. He had lost the years in which he might have taken the highest titles in the clan” (171). Okonkwo is heartbroken after his return to his tribe because he knew that his religion is dying and there is nothing he can do about it. Okonkwo also knows that the death of his religion and culture means all of his hard work as a child meant nothing, and these thoughts lead Okonkwo to kill himself due to his immense fear of

Everyone has goals in life ,and strives to complete these goals throughout the course of their lives. Although it may be challenging to accomplish these goals, a person needs to know when to stop pushing themselves. In the novel, Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, a stubborn man who lives in an African village strives to be the alpha male among everyone he knows. Okonkwo, once a great man, fell because his father's influence, his personality and the invading British.