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Tragic flaws in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart
Brief summary and thematic aspects of Chinua Achebe' s things fall apart
Brief summary and thematic aspects of Chinua Achebe' s things fall apart
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Okonkwo is known throughout all nine villages for his self-wealth, strength but most of all his anger and temper. He is irrational and does not think logically, but thinks through his fists. He is incapable of showing remorse or emotion, and due to this lack of emotion, when someone starts to agitate him he immediately fights. Whether it be domestic violence towards his wife and children or picking fights with neighbors challenging him. Okonkwo’s family relationships make him a sympathetic character because he provides for his family which is what his father could not do and an unsympathetic character because of the constant domestic violence when something is not done to his expectations.
Okonkwo’s devastating effects Attention!!! Okonkwo’s effects on his culture’s communication in his tribe are devastating him!!! The reasons for Okonkwo’s change in their senses of identity included are he identifies with manliness as strength, wealth, power, and violence, what drives him to be UNLIKE his father, and it is important for him to be respected by his clan. Overall, their response to the introduction of Western ideas shaped the meaning of the work as a whole by making Okonkwo work with the negative effects inside him and making him stronger than he was in his young age.
The author, Chinua Achebe, used Okonkwo as an example of the father/son conflict and how the conflict affects a man’s life. Just because one does not always act like the typical strong, almost emotionless man, that does not mean one is coward. Okonkwo’s thought process leads to his demise because he cannot bear to see the strong willed tribe and culture he has known his whole life fail him: just
Aristotle contributed to many people 's fame, Alexander being the popular figure talked about in history. However there 's another man who gets less recognition than Alexander. Carl Linnaeus was a famous Swedish scientist who was called the “Father of Taxonomy”, Taxonomy is the classification of lifeforms. According to Berkeley.edu “In Linnaeus 's original system, genera were grouped into orders, orders into classes, and classes into kingdoms.
Nicolas Cage states, “I think what makes people fascinating is conflict, it's drama, it's the human condition. Nobody wants to watch perfection.” Anger, Death, Violence, Chaos, the past, speaking silently in the darkness. These nouns draw our attention by the main and forefront inclination of human nature, and how our bodies are programmed to maintain focus on such events. An inescapable collision course, since the dawn of time conflict, has arisen deep within our souls, along with the obscurity that ensues, being a fundamental factor in how we cannot process the cause or reason of why individuals let negativity, personal gain, hatred, and other emotional charges take control of their mouths and body.
The views of success in Okonkwo’s culture made him dislike his father because in the eyes of Okonkwo’s culture to be successful you had to have a title, strength, money, property, extra food, and lots of wives. Okonkwo disliked his father because he was a lazy, weak, unsuccessful coward who owed everybody money. This ultimately made Okonkwo ashamed of his father and made him state that “fortunately, among these people a man is judged according to his worth and not according to the worth of his father” (Achebe 6). This was important because it proves how much
¨He had no patience with unsuccessful men, He had no patience with his father¨(Achebe Pg. #4). Okonkwo does not tolerate men who had no title or who were lazy, including his father. He was so unsympathetic and full of his own priorities that he had no patience for his own father. This shows that he has no sympathy for people who are considered less of him.
In the beginning of the story, Okonkwo was a very vigorous man who everyone loves. One day a killing happened leaving Okonkwo with a wife and a son, Ikemefuna. He grew to like the young boy, where he is different from his other children, On a fateful day, Okonkwo murders Ikemefuna. Okonkwo had a load of guilt for killing his adoptive son, Ikemefuna.
From being nothing in his village he rises to be a great, honorable, successful leader of umuofia. He also has a tragic flaw of being weak, failure and having fear that leads him to fail at things several times because of his fears. All of these failures then lead him to his suicide. Finally, he finds his own tragic fate because of his murder of the missionaries court messenger during his villages meeting. Though Okonkwo's life started out as one of the most successful and leading men of Umuofia but because of his violent and impulsive characteristics, even the most successful and well-respected man can fall from his
In the book “Things Fall Apart“ Okonkwo is a very strong man and from time to time he starts showing his true self. He has a lot of responsibilities and other things he has to do around the living environment and interact with lots of people. Okonkwo changes from being that strong man, to a man who feels like his tribe is not with him when he wants to go to war with the missionaries. For someone like Okonkwo a lot of people looks up to him and while in the tribe Okonkwo beats his wives and children. Not good behavior for someone who is supposedly looked at as strong.
The tragic flaws of the two cause their demise. Okonkwo as well as Macbeth can be identified as tragic heroes due to both men suffering from tragic flaws; however, their similarity of being tragic heroes diverge due to both men having different motivational factors that were instilled by their experiences. In both instances the external environment along with the personalities of the characters formed their tragic flaws. Okonkwo’s tragic flaw was created because he did not want to become anything similar to his father.
The hatred that he had for his father he carried with him throughout his whole life. That hatred turned into him killing Ikemefuna and the messenger. Ikemefuna was thought of as a son and he killed him in fear of being considered weak in front of his clan members. That weakness was thought of his weakness which was considered a failure. At the end of the story Okonkwo ends up being just like his father which is ironic because he strived to be nothing like him.
A tragic hero is a term that describes a character who displays certain characteristics which affect their future significantly. In Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo’s fate as a tragic hero to an extent is greatly true as he portrays hamartia, a fatal flaw, and hubris, excessive pride. Even though the author describes Okonkwo as a hardworking, African farmer, it contradicts his rash decisions following numerous events. Therefore, Okonkwo’s tragedy is true as his fear of weakness and excessive pride lead him to his downfall. Even though Achebe sets Okonkwo to his downfall, it is evident that Okonkwo is a great hero despite his rash behavior and temper.
The post colonial novel, "Things fall apart" by Chinua Achebe depicts its protagonist Okonkwo as great person who falls into the world of chaos to find his own place through his strength and achievements. Okonkwo in few parts of novel touches the traces of epic hero while in other parts touches the tragic hero characteristics. However Okonkwo 's suicide in the end turns the table to reader to view him through different lens than epic hero or tragic hero. According to Aristotle in his poetics, the tragic hero is an intermediate person who is filled with tragic flaw(hubris /hamartia)
First, his relationship with his father Unoka. Who he did not have a great relationship with. And someone he did not specifically care for. Someone he knew who just so happen to be his father. In the book there is a quote “okonkwo was ruled by one passion- to hate everything his father had loved”.
