Okonkwo Tragic Hero

Similar to other tragic heroes, Okonkwo also has a tragic flaw, which is a fear of weakness and failure. While the fear of failure and weakness drives Okonkwo to work hard and helps him earns his fame and achievements, on the other hand, it also causes him many problems. Many times throughout Okonkwo's life, his fear of failure and weakness leads him to act harshly, violently and impulsively toward other people, including his family members. Okonkwo is always harsh and violent with his family members because he doesn't want to be

Okonkwo was a man of action, who would proudly go to war for his village and be victorious. During one of these battles, Okonkwo was able to achieve “his fifth head”(10). The head symbolized a trophy of war, it showed just how strong a man was. Okonkwo used to be “the proud honor” of Umuofia (12). This was because when he would fight he fought with such grace and would win his village the battles. Okonkwo's skills most definitely led to his downfall. If he had been more careful with what he was doing and what he was saying he wouldn't have felt the need to die at the hands of suicide. Okonkwo was a headstrong man and because of this, he made some decisions, like leading a group to burn down a church, that made him end his life. Foremost some might disagree

Okonkwo's first and most prominent flaw is his fear of becoming a failure. It is greatly influenced by his father, but Okonkwo takes his fear to the extreme. Okonkwo's father was a very lazy and carefree man. He had a reputation of being "poor and his wife and children had just barely enough to eat... they swore never to lend him any more money because he never paid back." (Achebe Page: 5) In Umuofia, a father is supposed to teach the children right and wrong, and in this case, the lessons were not taught, but self-learned. Okonkwo had to rely on his own interpretations of what defined a "good man" and to him that was someone that was the exact opposite of his father. As a result of his own self-taught conclusions, Okonkwo feels that anything resembling his father or anything that his father enjoyed was weak and unnecessary. Because of his fear to be seen as weak, Okonkwo even strikes down a child that calls him father: "(and as the machete came down] Okonkwo looked away. He heard the blow... He heard Ikemefuna cry 'My father, they have killed me!'... Okonkwo draws his machete and cuts him down, he does not want to be thought weak." (Achebe page:61) The fact that he kills the child shows that the way that he thinks is wrong, that reputation is more important than the life of a child. Although it is a shame to be

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.

In the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, things fall apart for the character Okonkwo because of his character traits. Okonkwo is a very structured man with little patience for whatever he believes is wrong. Some of Okonkwos negative character traits include his violent temper, which gets him in trouble with his religion, clan, family and the missionaries, and his constant battles with his own father which cause him to believe in what is wrong, even if he is aware of what is right. As well, Okonkwo being such a structured man is a good feature of his personal nature, but even this has a negative effect on his life. Okonkwo is an extremely complex character created by Chinua Achebe, and his life falls apart because of all of these

A tragic hero is a literary character who makes a judgment error that inevitably leads to his/her own destruction. In the book “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo’s life falls apart as he has to deal with the destruction of his tribe and influences of christianity. Okonkwo is a tragic hero because he allows fatal errors in judgement and inner forces to contribute to his downfall.

Being a hero can be defined in different ways by many different people. Christopher Reeve says, “A hero is someone who, in spite of weakness, doubt or not always knowing the answers, goes ahead and overcomes anyway.” Aristotle says, “ a tragic hero is a literary character who makes a judgement error that inevitably leads to his/her own destruction.” Okonkwo, from the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, may be perceived as a hero by the definitions of many people; throughout the book readers can see that Okonkwo matches Aristotle’s standards/definition of a tragic hero. Okonkwo can be perceived in many different ways throughout the book.

The story “Things Fall Apart” is surrounded around a character by the name of Okonkwo. Okonkwo’s father was a broke, poor, and weak man whom left Okonkwo nothing. As a result, Okonkwo is an impulsive man that acts without thinking and typically treats others with a bad personality. As the story advances you notice that Okonkwo portrays many brutal actions that assist the plot in creating a theme and organization.

First, Okonkwo starts off as a poor child, as shown when the book states, “Okonkwo did not have the start in life which many young men usually had, he did not inherit a barn from his father. There was no barn to inherit” showing that Okonkwo and his family were penurious, compared to others in the Igbo tribe (Achebe 16). Eventually, through his hard work and effort, he became a noble leader, which emphasizes his role as a tragic hero. Throughout the story Okonkwo goes through many challenges, but “In the face of futility, however, he maintains his nobility of character”(Gaydosik).

A tragic hero is a literary character who makes a judgment error that inevitably leads to his/her own destruction. Okonkwo, a main character in the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, fits this description perfectly. Okonkwo is a tribe leader of a clan in Umuofia in Eastern Nigeria. The choices Okonkwo makes during the book make him out to be a tragic hero. Okonkwo’s decisions affect him and the people around him both negatively and positively and end up changing his way of life.

Okonkwo’s hubris derived from his father, Unoka. Unoka was lazy, buried in debt, “womanly”, and irresponsible. Okonkwo was very ashamed because of his father’s reputation. To not be the man his father was, Okonkwo strived to be the best of what he could be. He defeated the top wrestler in his village because his father wasn’t physical, so he pushed himself to excel at being violent. He showed no mercy to his wives or children when they did not listen to him in order

A tragic hero is a literary character who makes judgment error that inevitably leads to his/her own destruction. In Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart, the main character Okonkwo was the leader of the British Colonialism and Christian missionaries on the Igbo community. Although Okonkwo is an admirable person of importance in Igbo society, he allows his moments of weakness to bring about his downfall, which makes him a tragic hero.

In the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Achebe chooses Okonkwo as the main character for various reasons. Okonkwo’s father Unoka was known as being a failure and appearing weak; he did not work and he was constantly borrowing money from people and never paying them back. Since Okonkwo’s father held such a disgraceful reputation, Okonkwo was determined to spend the rest of his life being the complete opposite of what his father was. This is how he derived his obsession with appearing strong rather than weak. Okonkwo’s mentality serves him well through him being hard working and taking action in difficult situations, but his mentality becomes problematic when he makes rash decisions and drives away loved ones because he refuses to show

It can be said that Okonkwo was doomed from the start seeing as his father did not provide for him, leaving him to fend for himself early on but for me it is another sad excuse for his inexcusable actions. Despite these very negative traits, Okonkwo does possesses some positive ones. For instance he is very hardworking. This is shown throughout the book especially during harvest and planting seasons. However Okonkwo’s hard work does not make up for the fact that he is not in control of his passionate hate for his father and fear of becoming like Unoka, allowing it overcome him causing him to physically hurting people in his life. I have no respect for Okonkwo seeing as his actions due to his fear and hate of his father paired with his excuses are not something that should ever be respected or even tolerated leaving me to dislike him

Okonkwo allowed his inner and outside forces to contribute to his downfall and that is one reason on how he is portrayed as a tragic hero. He was quick to anger. At the village meeting at the marketplace, he was mad at the messenger and his “machete descended twice and the man's head lay beside his uniformed body”(204). This