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Things Fall Apart Okonkwo A Tragic Hero

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“A tragic hero is a person of noble birth with heroic or potentially heroic qualities. This person is fated by the Gods or by some supernatural force to doom and destruction or at least to great suffering.” Okonkwo in the book, “Things Fall Apart” is the character we follow though the whole story. His biggest fear is being looked upon like his father, who was a failure in everyone 's eyes and lived a life of hardship. Okonkwo is a tragic hero because he is important in Igbo society and ultimately led to his own downfall due to his fear of being weak. Iguedo, the home village of Okonkwo, was once a proud land. They believed in many gods and did many awful deeds they considered correct. A fellow female clansmen was killed by an opposing clan. A new boy named Ikemefuna lives with Okonkwo for many years, and they grew very close to one another. He loved him like a son until, “Yes, Umuofia has decided to kill him. The Oracle of the Hills and the Caves has pronounced it... But I want you to have nothing to do with it. He calls you his father" (57). Okonkwo still went because he was strong headed and did not want to be looked upon as weak. He also wanted to define the leaders but he did not want to upset the gods. Okonkwo walked with …show more content…

Okonkwo is also a tragic hero because of his fatal errors. Okonkwo had anger issues. At one point, one of his wives had cut a few leaves off the banana tree. “... Okonkwo gave her a sound beating and left her and her only daughter weeping.” (38). Afterwards he told her to go get his rusty gun, so he could go hunting. As she walked away, she “murmured something about guns that never shot.”(39). Okonkwo hear this and after retrieving his gun, ran out and shot at her. “He pressed the trigger and there was a loud report accompanied by the wail of his wives and children.”(39). Okonkwo has a very bad anger issue and takes out all his frustration on his family. He treats them awful and he cared more for Ikemefuna then anyone in his immediate

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One of the more unusual cultural aspects that is discussed in Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart is the existence of an ogbanje. According to a study of Igbo culture conducted by researcher Bertram I. N. Osuagwu, an ogbanje is “an evil spirt causing people to die suddenly” (Osuagwu 36). Some believe that the ogbanje are deities that enter the world and become human beings, but because of a promise that they made to the spirit world, they die early in their lives (Osuagwu 36). In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo’s wife Ekwefi believes that she has been cursed by an ogbanje because of the abnormally high mortality rate of her children. Early in the novel, Achebe describes the hardship that Ekwefi has endured, stating “Ekwefi had suffered a good

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In the book are several quotes to support this, but one seems to be the more straightforward quote. “Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness….. It was fear of himself lest he should be

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(Butcher, 2000). It is due to his hubris or hamartia , he commits a crime. He then undergoes through pain and suffering and learns a fundamental truth of life. In short , tragic hero is a person who makes error in his jugdement which leads to downfall of himself in end (Aristotle,n.a) and ends usually with death of protagonist with evocation of pity and fear among the reader. However, Okonkwo does have few traits of tragic hero.

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