Things Fall Apart: Okonkwo as a Tragic Hero

A detailed Summary of Things Fall Apart: Okonkwo as a Tragic Hero


In Chinua Achebe's novel, Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo plays the role of a tragic hero destined to fall from his lofty titles. From a small child, he struggled to be the opposite of his father. When working to be successful, Okonkwo "threw himself into it like one possessed. And indeed he was possessed by the fear of his father's contemptible life and shameful death." Although his father was ill-fated in the eyes of the tribe and his own son, he contained something that Okonkwo never had: humility and happiness in simple things. Even when they took Unoka, his father, away to be left in the evil forest to die, he took his flute, a source of happiness. So Okonkwo with his characteristics doomed for tragedy, led a seemingly successful life, though a tragic flaw of pride and wrong decisions robbed him of his self fantasized gilded life.

Since tragedy involves the "fall" of a tragic hero, one theory is that one must have a lofty position to fall from, or else there is no tragedy (just sorrow). Another explanation of this characteristic is that tragedies involving people of stature


While there is often a role of fate in the downfall of a tragic hero, there must be an element of choice in order for there to be a true tragedy. The tragic hero falls because he chooses one course of action over another. In Okonkwo's case, he chose to kill the messenger at the meeting in the market place thinking his tribesmen would follow his lead. However, when the clan did not have desire as strong as Okonkwo's to dominate, he was forced to fight alone. It is crucial that the tragic hero come to some sort of an understanding of what went wrong or of what was really going on before he comes to his end. As soon as he killed the messenger, and his tribe "had broken into tumult instead of action...He knew that Umuofia would not go to war." Defeated, he simply wiped his matchet and walked away.

Therefore, Okonkwo carries all the characteristics of a tragic hero. His sad story brought the downfall of himself and the hastening of his tribe's fall to the white men. Ironically, because he took his own life, his death was of equal disgrace with his father's. They both s

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Approximate Word count = 734
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels

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