The novel, Thing Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe follows the life of Okonkwo, a man from the Igbo Community, Umuofia. He has records in wrestling and a reputation that he is determined to maintain. Although he possesses physical strength and wants to be seen as nothing but strong, he ironically meets Aristotle's criteria of being a tragic hero along with having a tragic flaw perfectly. Okonkwo’s tragic flaw is hyper masculinity. Although Okonkwo meets all of Aristotle's criteria of being a tragic hero along with having a tragic flaw perfectly, one of the most represented throughout the novel is possessing hubris. An example of this is, “He heard Ikemefuna cry, My father, they have killed me!” as he ran towards him. Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak,” (Pg. 61). In this context, Ikemefuna was meant to be killed as a …show more content…
In the beginning of the novel, Okonkwo was a highly respected individual however towards the end, this takes a turn. On page 205, chapter 24, it mentions, “Okonkwo stood looking at the dead man. He knew that Umuofia would not go to war.” In this context, Okonkwo had just beheaded a messenger. Colonizers had influenced the beliefs of the villagers in the Igbo culture as Okonkwo had been gone and he was aware that he did not have the power to influence them. He took matters into his own hands and murdered a messenger which was considered obeying the law within Umuofia. This supports that Okonkwo endured a fall from greatness because he no longer was listened to. He had committed too many acts against the village that he could no longer be trusted. This shows that he possesses hypermasculinity because of the fact that he handled a situation that he believed showed weakness in the villagers by murdering the origin of the