Okonkwo A Tragic Hero

A Tragic Hero, as defined by Aristotle, is a character with a flaw that will eventually lead to his or her destruction. In Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart” the main character Okonkwo deals with white Christian men coming into his community and changing everything he knows about life, just when he thinks things are coming back to normal, things fall apart. Throughout the book Okonkwo is considered a Tragic hero because of his importance in the community and also his because of his errors in judgment which will eventually lead to his downfall.

Even at the beginning of the book Okonkwo is considered a hero and because of his flaws that he cannot get over, this makes him a tragic hero. Being a tragic hero you still have some aspects of a true hero, Okonkwo was a …show more content…
Okonkwo was a very strong man and never wanted to be thought of as weak this is why Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna he “drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak.” (P.61) Okonkwo’s number one flaw is how he never wants to be thought of as week like his father who had no spine. Okonkwo never wanted his son to be like his father but later Nwoye left Okonkwo making Okonkwo tell himself that “Nwoye resembled his grandfather, Unoka,”(P.153) Even as a kid Okonkwo was afraid Nwoye would be like his father but when Nwoye left to follow the Christians Okonkwo thought to himself that he had become like his father, which was something he feared the most of all. Throughout the book Okonkwo shows few signs of weakness, the biggest sign was when he hung himself, it was said about Okonkwo that he”was one of the greatest men in Umuofia. “ but the white men that came “drove him to kill himself and now he will be buried like a dog..." (P.208) This shows that Okonkwo was a very strong man but hated what Umuofia was turning into because of the white men that had come into their community and ruined their past