Okonkwo Tragic Flaw Analysis

Okonkwo life is “dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness” (Achebe 13). When Okonkwo was a boy, his playmates teased him calling, saying that his father was agbala. Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, was lazy. He did not work on his farm; he died in great debt. He did not acquire a single title. He did not have a barn to pass down to his son. Unoka is a type of man who is scorned in Umofia. He is seen as weak and effeminate. As Okonkwo grows older, he is determined not become a failure like his father. His father was weak; he will be strong. His father was lazy; he will be hard-working. Okonkwo earned his fame by defeating the reigning wrestling champion. Okonkwo diligently plants yam, building a successful farm. He builds himself an obi, has three wives and many children. His fame “rested on solid personal achievements” (Achebe 3). Okonkwo will not let one womanly trait sully his reputation. Therefore, he “hate[d] everything that his father Unoka had loved” (Achebe 13). One of these was gentleness. Okonkwo refuses to show any signs of emotion, except his temper. He

He is impulsive. He acts before he thinks. He often offends the igbo peoploe and their traditions as well as the gods of his clan. When the white man brought Christianity to Umuofia, Okonkwo felt that the changes are ruining the Igbo culture. This is his tragic flaw, the inability to accept change. For him, hard work and effort were the true way of living and if you didn’t have any of those you were not worthy for his acknowledgement.

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

Through the character of Okonkwo, Achebe illustrates the dangers of being selfish. Although successful, Okonkwo is one of the most aggressively selfish men among the Igbo people based on his self-centered needs and desires. This characteristic is prevalent throughout the entirety of the novel, and there are always consequences to his actions. For example, Okonkwo is fond of calling men “women” to make himself look more masculine. He does this to Osugo in front of a group of men in a meeting. “Okonkwo knew how to kill a man’s spirit. Everybody at the kindred meeting took sides with Osugo when Okonkwo called him a woman” (Achebe 26). Since the other men sided with Osugo, Okonkwo’s punishment for this narcissistic outburst is embarrassment. Continuing,

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

He often "wish[es] she [Ezinma] were a boy."(122) For his son, "he wanted Nwoye to grow into a tough young man capable of ruling his... household." (37) The failure of his son to live up to Okonkwo's expectations for him are another factor in Okonkwo's own innate need to be exceptionally masculine.

In the narrative Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe manifests the vision of a tragic hero. He encapsulates this by assimilating diction and mood to typify the comportment of the main character, Okonkwo, after producing his own downfall. The usage of diction and mood assist in portraying all the definitions of a tragic hero.

Okonkwo took his struggles to the extreme. A boy called Ikemefuna came to stay with Okonkwo and his family. Okonkwo and his family grew close to Ikemefuna and so did he. Nwoye considered Okonkwo his father figure because Nwoye did not have a father. Nwoye became best friends with Okonkwo’s son Nwoye. One day a group of Village elders from all nine villages came to okonkwo’s house and let him know that Ikemefuna was to be killed. The next day they all went out together along with Ikemefuna and as they were walking, one of the men raised his machete and struck him down. “My father, they have killed me!” As he ran towards him. Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak”(Achebe 61) Okonkwo throughout the whole book doesn’t act the way he wants to scared he might be though weak and not manly. Okonkwo blocks off his emotions quite a lot. Okonkwo feels disappointed with his son but he is very proud of his daughter, yet he doesn’t want to admit it to her so he takes it out on her mother. He had wished that his daughter were to be a boy so he can be proud of her and praise her but he does not want to acknowledge a female.

People say that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Things Fall Apart, written by Chinua Achebe, centers around a man named Okonkwo who despises his late father. The story takes place in an African village during the 1800s. Okonkwo strives to be everything his father, Unoka, wasn’t. The entire village saw Unoka as a man who was lazy and unsuccessful. Okonkwo grew up with the mentality that his father had no redeeming qualities. Now a grown man, Okonkwo hates everything his father was and strives to be everything he wasn’t. However, while they are essentially polar opposites, Okonkwo and Unoka’s lives have a few parallels. Both Okonkwo and Unoka are stubborn in their own ways, are well known throughout the village, and have dysfunctional relationships with their sons.

Okonkwo had a son, Nwoye. Moreover Okonkwo does not like his son because he had characteristics that made him look weak. Okonkwo saw his

His father was not known for repaying loans and was hated by the whole clan because of that, he was also very lazy and had claimed to job or title. To okonkwo’s eyes his father was weak and and a person who is worth nothing. Unlike his father, Okonkwo was a person that wants to take control of most situations. Just like he rules his family with fear of being beaten, he rules other with fear. He hates to be seen as a feminine and weak even though he does have a little bit of it in him.

A literary character that makes bad decisions that eventually leads to his/her downfall is what we define as a tragic hero, Okonkwo is this character. In the novel “Things Fall Apart”, Chinua Achebe illustrates his own version of a tragic hero through the character, Okonkwo. In relation to other tragic heroes in other literature or films, Okonkwo does not fare well towards the end of the novel. All throughout the Igbo community, Okonkwo is known for his honorable and respective social status, though they are present Okonkwo’s poignant flaws, anger, and fear of failure, lead to his destruction. Okonkwo is one of the most important men in the Igbo tribe, in his tribe, people both fear and respect him.

“Okonkwo ruled his household with a heavy hand”(Achebe pg.13). Some might say that Okonkwo is a cold man who cares for no one else, while others say that he is a bit of a softie. Through the story we are able to see two main sides to Okonkwo, a sympathetic and unsympathetic side. Okonkwo lived a difficult life. His father was a lazy man, who owed many others heavy wages. Okonkwo knew that in order to become a strong, respected man in the village he had to prove himself to not be like his father. He worked hard to get to where he wanted to be and on the way developed a somewhat cold hearted attitude towards things. All he cared about was being successful unlike his father. Unfortunately, due to this he pushed his sympathetic feelings aside. Okonkwo’s family relationships make him a sympathetic character because

Okonkwo victimizes his family due to his sexism. Okonkwo’s actions and thoughts signifies his idea that men and women are not equal. Throughout the plot he berates his daughter, Ezinma, concerning her gender. Since she is not the son he wishes for he continually abuses her into acting more feminine. When Okonkwo summons Ezinma to his hut and as she sits down “‘Sit like a woman!’ Okonkwo [shouts] at her,” (Achebe 44). Okonkwo forces Ezinma to cook and care for him and usually shows no affection towards her. Okonkwo’s victimization causes Ezinma to feel unwanted and unable to make Okonkwo happy. Yelling to Ezinma and trying to teach her what he wants from her conflicts what she hears her father tell Nwoye. Okonkwo tells Nwoye to become stronger and focus on

The novel “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe follows the classic model of a tragedy. Where a man of the name Okonkwo spent his life trying not to follow in his father Unoka footsteps. He had one fatal flaw, he was haunted by the ghost his cowardly father. But will hiding who he really is lead to the fall of his facade? This fear of weakness and failure has come from his father and is the reasoning for many things he does in his life. His father, Unoka, was not a strong higher figure, like Okonkwo. Unoka died, leaving many villagers he knew with unsettled debts. In this story, Okonkwo is thought of as a tragic hero. His course of action, led by a tragic flaw, being afraid to appear anything like his father, is