Okonkwo Tragic Hero

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

The destruction of Okonkwo was revealed slowly throughout the books. He started to make some poor decisions, which became the beginning of his downfall. He killed Ikemefuna just because he didn’t want to be thought weak. He made unwise decisions to only appear to be strong and manly to others in the village. He did not realize how he lost so much from living that way. When, Okonkwo kills Ogbuefi Ezedu’s son, the real tragedy begins. Other tragic heroes usually have a steadier downfall, but Okonkwo had a direct fall in society due to this event. This puts his family into exile for seven years. After a short period of time, white missionaries arrive to Umuofia. When “The

A hero by definition, without regards to religion or race, is a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities. In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, many criticize whether or not the protagonist, Okonkwo, is a hero based on his actions toward others and himself from the Whiteman had arrived in the Igbo community. As new changes were being introduced in the Igbo community, so were new emotions within the tribe. Okonkwo, because of these emotions, commits violent attacks against others and then himself. In Patrick Nnoromele’s article “The Plight of a Hero in Achebe's Things Fall Apart”, he argues Okonkwo is a hero of the Igbo culture who is destined to fail due to his devotion to his culture and

For all of his desire to be strong, Okonkwo is caught up by the constant fear of being perceived as weak. He is afraid of failure and afraid of being considered weak. This fear drives him to do whatever he can to not become a failure like his father which ironically contributes to his death. While Okonkwo was a strong and important figure in his tribe, he had to keep his reputation that way by making some hard decisions. One of them was when he had to kill Ikemefuna, a young boy from the neighboring tribe. Okonkwo started accepting the decision to kill Ikemefuna because he started to call Okonkwo father. He had to keep his own valor intact and kill the boy to prevent himself from showing any weakness, but deep down, Okonkwo was really upset because of what he did which was ironic, “’When did you become a shivering old woman,' Okonkwo asked himself, 'you, who are known in all the nine villages for your valor in war? How can a man who has killed five men in battle fall to pieces because he has added a boy to their number? Okonkwo, you have become a woman indeed.'" (Achebe 65). He continued to roll downhill when the white man comes to try and convert Okonkwo’s tribe. Okonkwo responds by killing one of the messengers that were sent. This cause Okonkwo's own tribe to question his actions. “"Okonkwo stood looking at the dead man. He knew that Umuofia would not go to war. He knew because they had let the other messengers escape.

He did it because he knew Umuofia wouldn’t go to war because they let the other messengers escape. Which also resulted in his death. He feared that nobody would follow his expectations on killing the white man. He thought his clan was weakening, he kilt himself in fear of being weak and thought killing the messenger would restore his manhood. In all, Okonkwo ended up how he didn’t want to end up, in

Hero is a character with better qualities and abilities that most boys would like to become even when they grow up. Some heroes have wonderful endings while some ones, which are called tragic heroes do not. Aristotle stated that “tragic hero will most effectively evoke both our pity and terror if he is neither thoroughly good nor thoroughly bad but a mixture of both(Abram, 322) The protagonist Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart, Which was written by the Chinua Achebe, was respectable at the beginning of the novel but suicided at the end of the story. We define Okonkwo as a tragic hero because he was a successful man, he had fatal weakness and he had a tragic ending.

He brought fright in that tumult.” (pg 205). Citizens of Umuofia were scared and confusion never to have thought that the great man they once respected would due such thing. The idea of losing power and respect against someone else was unbearable to Okonkwo mind which can be shown as a sign of being scared to something that might be greater than one’s self. After killing the missionary Okonkwo didn’t want to live in a world were he would suffer consequences.

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).

Okonkwo’s hunger for power is greater than any others in the Umuofia village. Okonkwo’s thirst for power is greater than just doing it for publicity and for the people. Okonkwo endless hard work to gain titles is personal for him. Okonkwo wanted to be nothing like his father Unoka since he was a child. Unoka resembled all the things Okonkwo was not such as weak, a liar, cheap, couldn’t take care of his own family, and considered a women to the rest of the clan members. Okonkwo rarely speaks about

What defines a tragic hero? A tragic hero can be defined as a person who is admired by everyone but has a tragic flaw that destroys them. In Things Fall Apart, a novel by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo can be considered a tragic hero as he is a successful leader of umuofia but his pride becomes the cause of his downfall. In order to be considered a tragic hero the character must be noble, famous or rich.

A tragic hero is a hero who goes though a lot of things. Okonkwo is a tragic hero because is important in his society and he meets death of choices with courage. In things fall apart Okonkwo gets a lot of fame because he has three titles and three barns of yams.

We love heroes in our society. Whether Superman, an athlete, a soldier, or someone else, we look up to these people and admire these people all the time. They're our heroes, right? In Ancient Greece, however, Aristotle came up with a different type of hero in literature, the tragic hero. Aristotle documents the path of a tragic hero through four steps, starting with nobility, then flaw, forces, and fall. In Chinua Achebe’s book, Things Fall Apart, the main character, Okonkwo, is portrayed as a tragic hero.

The description given early in the novel clearly establishes his character as being a strong and wealthy man who is well respected among the rest of the tribe due to his superior fighting abilities and his influential personality. Having achieved such elite status within the Umuofia clan, Okonkwo appears to be old-fashioned as it is seen in his approach in raising his family and tribal people. However, Okonkwo’s character changes incrementally with the emergence of a boy, Ikemefuna, from a neighboring village, who was brought to him because of his brutal attack against his wife Ojiugo during the ‘week of peace’. Amongst the Umuofia clan, the ‘week of peace’ is a tribal ritual whose conditions are not to complete any evil sins in a certain week span. After having accepted Ikemefuna into the family, Okonkwo experiences a shift in his mental state. Shortly hereafter, he questions this change, which demonstrates his lack of willingness to change which is clearly demonstrated in the book in several different ways like in chapter Eight, Okonkwo proclaims to himself, “When did you become a shivering old woman, you, who are known in all nine villages for your valour in war” (Achebe 56). This represents that his character has become a weaker, less influential individual amongst the nine tribes where he is well known. Symbolically, this depicts a fragile reputation in Okonkwo’s status within the community to which he belongs.

Okonkwo, as seen in Chapter One on pages 3 to 8, was a man born into the unlucky fate of having a father like Unoka. Unoka was a lazy and incompetent man who died an

Aristotle once said “A man doesn’t become a hero until he can see the root of his downfall.” The protagonist of the book “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo demonstrates characteristics of being an Aristotelian tragic hero. According to Aristotle, a Tragic Hero is one who exhibits a tragic flaw that causes a reversal of fortune to him in his own error of judgment. Okonkwo is a leader and a hardworking member of the Igbo tribe of the village of Umofia whose tragic flaw is his immense fear of appearing emotionally weak in his community.