A tragic hero, a person who only wants succeed, but sadly makes an irreversible tragic flaw. Now the tragic flaw is not the only characteristic that a Tragic Hero must have, the hero must do or have the following things happen to them- Hamartia(fatal flaw),a reversal of fortune, the character must realize there reversal of fortune, show excessive of pride, and most importantly have a fate that is much greater than deserved. Okonkwo shows all of the character traits in many different shapes and forms. Throughout this paper you will learn about all of Okonkwo’s states of excessive pride and his fear of being thought of as his father, you also learn that sometimes things don’t work out for the best, instead they work out for the worse. Have
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I feel like there is one point in the book where Okonkwo finally realizes things are not going to work out how he planned, this is when it clicked in Okonkwo’s head that he had failed-“He knew Umuofia would not go to war.”(205). This is when Okonkwo finally realizes that war will not happen, they are not going to kill all the Christians and white people, that there Ibo religion will never be thought as in the same way again. This is when he finally realized that even with all the work he put into this was to big for even him to defeat, his own son became a Christian. He finally realized he had lost, lost many things, ways of his culture,his clan, and even his own son, all due to his fear of …show more content…
When Okonkwo final realized there would be no war, no more fighting, and there would be a big change in the Ibo land and among the Ibo people, he did something a “real” man would have never done, he committed suicide. “ It is an abomination for a man to take his own life.”(207). This is the worse that Okonkwo or any man have ever had. Taking your own life makes you look weak, it makes you an evil spirit, and it made Okonkwo just as low if not lower than his father, all the things he ever feared happening to him. This is how Okonkwo ended up as “Tragic Hero”. Remember Okonkwo put his pride and his fear of weakness above all else. I hope you can now see that 5 characteristics of the tragic hero come together and explain Okonkwo perfectly. This only shows that pride and strength can only get you so far and not everyone is going to agree with you and bow down to you. The book Things Fall Apart is one of the greatest books to show a great example of Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero, and will be legend for years to
I feel like there is one point in the book where Okonkwo finally realizes things are not going to work out how he planned, this is when it clicked in Okonkwo’s head that he had failed-“He knew Umuofia would not go to war.”(205). This is when Okonkwo finally realizes that war will not happen, they are not going to kill all the Christians and white people, that there Ibo religion will never be thought as in the same way again. This is when he finally realized that even with all the work he put into this was to big for even him to defeat, his own son became a Christian. He finally realized he had lost, lost many things, ways of his culture,his clan, and even his own son, all due to his fear of …show more content…
When Okonkwo final realized there would be no war, no more fighting, and there would be a big change in the Ibo land and among the Ibo people, he did something a “real” man would have never done, he committed suicide. “ It is an abomination for a man to take his own life.”(207). This is the worse that Okonkwo or any man have ever had. Taking your own life makes you look weak, it makes you an evil spirit, and it made Okonkwo just as low if not lower than his father, all the things he ever feared happening to him. This is how Okonkwo ended up as “Tragic Hero”. Remember Okonkwo put his pride and his fear of weakness above all else. I hope you can now see that 5 characteristics of the tragic hero come together and explain Okonkwo perfectly. This only shows that pride and strength can only get you so far and not everyone is going to agree with you and bow down to you. The book Things Fall Apart is one of the greatest books to show a great example of Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero, and will be legend for years to