Why Do Some Hero's Experience A Misfortune Or Downfall

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.

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

Okonkwo’s fear of unmanliness is kindled by his father, who was a lazy, unaccomplished man. Okonkwo strives to have a high status from a young age and eventually achieves it. He has a large family, many yams and is well known throughout the village for his valor. He

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.

In the novel Things Fall Apart written by Chinua Achebe, the character Okonkwo is nurtured to become who he is due to a person from his past, his father. The novel states, “When Unoka died he had taken no title at all and he was heavily in debt. Any wonder then that his son Okonkwo was ashamed of him” (Chinua Achebe 8). This lets the reader know that Okonkwo’s father was never a man of honor and that Okonkwo did not want anything to do with him and that he did not want to be like him. The novel later states, “Okonkwo’s fear was greater than these… It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father” (Chinua Achebe 13). This again shows that Okonkwo's entire lifestyle is formed around his dislike for his father. This dislike for his father affects the work as a whole by showing the reader that it nurtured him from birth until he died, so that he

“…His [Okonkwo’s] whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness…It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father” (13).

Okonkwo strives all of his life to become a stronger, more powerful, and a successful individual. He wants to do this because his father was a slack and lazy person who lived most of his life in debt and had no titles to his name. People often looked at his father as a women figure for the few achievements he redeemed. Okonkwo never wanted to be like his father and it eventually got to the point where he became fearful of becoming like him. Achebe uses the power of fear as a theme of to show how much it can devastate one’s

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.

A man can be successful by determination and hard work but they can fall because of their flaws and people around them. In the novel, Things Fall Apart a character named Okonkwo is very known throughout the village because of his titles and ranks. Okonkwo is strong and a skilled warrior and from this, he deals with problems differently than other people. He often uses violence over words to solves conflict when he is dealing with a problem. This is one of many flaws that is shown in the novel that led to Okonkwo’s downfall when facing a new culture that is introduced in the village. Okonkwo is a man who is scared to be seen as a weak man in his village but when he encounters new faces comes along a man who struggles to be himself and end up

Chinua Achebe unfolds a variety of interesting connections between characters in the Novel Things Fall Apart. Relationships with parents, children and inner self are faced differently, however the attitude that Okonkwo gave them determined what kind of outcome he generated from these relations. Okonkwo looks at everything through his violent and manly perspective and is afraid to show his real feelings because he thinks that he may be thought out as weak and feminine this paranoid attitude lead him to self-destruction.

In conclusion, Okonkwo exemplifies Aristotle's definition of a tragic hero. His character has many tragic flaws, including, fear of weakness, hubris, and his work ethic, which in the end lead to his death. His life and death provoke pity and fear for the audience. Okonkwo becomes noble and is a great leader overall in the story. In the end, Chinua Achebe has shown an expressive character that evidently can be called a tragic

In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo lives his life in fear of failure and weakness, often using violent force as he fears becoming like his father and losing respect from his fellow villagers. The story begins in the village of the Umuofia, one of nine connected villages with a man by the name of Okonkwo. Okonkwo is a very tall man with bushy eyebrows and a wide nose. He is a wealthy farmer who has three wives and several children and is the champion wrestler in the nine villages.

One reason Okonkwo is a tragic hero is because he is important to his society. On page three of thing fall apart it saids “Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages even beyond.” It is saying that okonkwo is very famous throughout the land. He owned a lot of things when his famous. On page eight it saids “ He was a wealthy farmer and had two barns full of yams, and had just married his third wife.” This says that he was rich and had what he wanted. Okonkwo did want to be lazy and poor like his father so he did everything he could to be a better person than his father. On page eight it saids “okonkwo was still young, he was already one of the

In Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, the main character, Okonkwo, serves as a tragic hero. A tragic hero, as defined by Aristotle, is a great character who makes a judgement error that inevitably leads to his or her’s own downfall. By the end of the novel, Okonkwo’s downfall can be seen when he ends up taking his own life. On one hand, some may argue that Okonkwo was merely a victim of fate. On the other hand, others may also argue that Okonkwo was responsible for his own downfall. I believe that Okonkwo, like all tragic heroes, was ultimately responsible for his own death.

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