Who Is The Tragic Hero In Things Fall Apart

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

Okonkwo soon learns about this and confronts his son, Nwoye about his secret meetings, Okonkwo soon becomes enraged and disowns his son after hearing about his experience not before abusing him of course. This action causes an effect which ultimately leads to Okonkwo’s downfall. Okonkwo enraged by the spread of Christianity within his own village self-proclaims war on the “white man”. Okonkwo eventually was detained as a result of his actions towards the “white man”. After he was released from detainment Okonkwo killed a courier and began to truly understand he was a rebel without a cause as his fellow Tribesmen would not help him with his internal struggle. Okonkwo knowing, he would be caught and executed for his crimes, instead decided to ultimately end his own life by hanging himself. Okonkwo’s major downfall in the story was his inability to co-exist with the white man and began his own personal vendetta against the Christian missionaries. Throughout the story the main essential theme Achebe tried to relay to us would be the fact that even though individuals may be of different religions, skin color, and have different personalities there is a realization that

Okonkwo also tries to show himself as an unsympathetic character to show that he is not a weak man, like his father, Unoka. (Being a weak man is a very degrading quality for the culture of Umofia.) An example of Okonkwo’s unsympathetic personality is Ikemefuna’s death. Although Okonkwo treasured the presence of the adopted buy, Ikemefuna, Okonkwo contributes the last and fatal blow to Ikemefuna, causing him to die in the Evil Forest. Okonkwo, regardless of his love for the boy, killed Ikemefuna ultimately to prove his manliness and strength to the tribe, a valued aspect of the culture. “Okonkwo’s machete descended twice and the man’s head lay beside his uniformed body.” (Achebe 146) Okonkwo is also very unsympathetic in regards to his father, Unoka. Unoka was a poor man who was always in debt; he had an interest in music and enjoyed talking.

In Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe employs imagery, symbolism, and themes to reveal the story of Okonkwo. Throughout the novel he weaves in these things to really tell us the tale.

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.

Chinua Achebe in the book Things Fall Apart, explains Okonkwo’s battle with failure. When experienced the changes of Umfia he couldn’t live, with he makes a tragic ending. Okonkwo was the one the Ibo tribe looked up to because he was a “fearless” warrior. Okonkwo was driven to be better than his father. Okonkwo was a successful farmer by taking good care of his crops. When the missionaries came in and brought changes, Okonkwo struggled with the changes. Okonkwo’s biggest challenges was when he realized the white man changed everything. Okonkwo proved his strength to the tribe in many ways.

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).

In Chinua Achebe’s book Things Fall Apart he develops a main character, Okonkwo. Okonkwo is portrayed as a strong, proud, fearless, and hardworking man who is destined for great things. He has strong beliefs and fights for the values taught by the Ibo people. One may view Okonkwo as a martyr, a man who sacrifices even life itself for the values

In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo, the protagonist, experiences change from the cultural collision caused by the introduction of Western ideas into the Igbo culture. Okonkwo is the personification of the Igbo cultural values and morals, he is a true warrior, hard-working man that raises a surplus of staple foods, and a holder of many Igbo cultural titles showing proof of his dedication and work. Okonkwo is also one of the Egwugwu, an elder of the village that acts as a host for a god during the Igbo clan’s cultural and judicial meetings. However, no matter how great Okonkwo was, he fell victim to the changes of Western culture as it infiltrated and destroyed his people.

Okonkwo is considered a man of high status. He was looked at as a fierce warrior in the clan of Umofia. According to Achebe, “He was a man of action, a man of war.” (10). He was a hard worker throughout his community which had landed him the position as a wealthy farmer. His hard work had obtained him a high ranking throughout the nine villages. Okonkwo 's tragic flaw was simply his fear of weakness or failing, which all had stemmed

In the novel “ Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe there were a number of conflicts in the story, one of the main ones being the desire that Okonkwo feels to overcome or defeat the legacy of his father Unoka. Unoka was a lazy man who liked only to play music and drink palm, he died with a great deal of debt and had no titles and no respect for the tribe. Okonkwo was ashamed and embarrassed by him for his entire life. Being the son of Unoka Okonkwo worked extremely hard to build his treasure, but he refused to show any signs of weakness or emotion as he was afraid to show anything like his father’s personality.

One of the most commonly asked questions about the novel Things Fall Apart is: why did Achebe choose a tragic hero, Okonkwo, as the main character in the story. According to Nnoromele, “A hero, in the Igbo cultural belief system, is one with great courage and strength to work against destabilizing forces of his community, someone who affects, in a special way, the destinies of others by pursuing his own. He is a man noted for special achievements. His life is defined by ambivalence, because his actions must stand in sharp contrast to ordinary behavior”(Nnoromele). In my opinion, he chose this type of hero to show the correlation between Okonkwo’s rise and fall in the Igbo society to the rise and fall of the Igbo culture itself. Many

“We have self-centered minds which get us into plenty of trouble. If we do not come to understand the error in the way we think, our self-awareness, which is our greatest blessing, is also our downfall” (Joko Beck). In Chinua Achebe’s fictional novel, Things Fall Apart, the main character Okonkwo illustrates self-centerdness as well as numerous other flaws which bring him towards his downfall. However, he demonstrates that he is well respected in the beginning of the novel, as well as accomplishing a high status. Okonkwo adheres to the qualities of a tragic hero as he begins the story as a noble leader where he is honored for his manliness and work ethic, but his constant struggle to rid himself of his father’s legacy as well as his overwhelming pride leads to his tragic downfall.

Things Fall Apart is a novel written by Chinua Achebe. This novel deals with the protagonist, Okonkwo, a great man from the village of Umuofia. Throughout the novel, the readers were exposed to the rise and fall of Okonkwo. At the end of the novel, Christian missionaries arrived at the village and started to take over the village and converted the tribesmen to Christianity. There is where the great fall of Okonkwo started. As he finds no support from his tribesmen anymore, he commits suicide by hanging himself on the tree. His death symbolizes the fallen and destruction of Igbo’s tribe.

Okonkwo is the protagonist in the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Things Fall Apart is about Okonkwo rule by success and fuel by the absolute resentment of becoming like his father, Unoka. Okonkwo chooses to live life by creating fear and anger to his tribe and his family. Okonkwo is ruled by fear and anger, which takes part in his ultimate downfall. Okonkwo is not so much a martyr but a tragic hero because he is a man of importance brought down by an insurmountable amount of conflict within himself due to his tragic flaws and the dominating cultural influence that threatens change in a traditional society.