Things Fall Apart

Chinua Achebe was born Nigerian but got a scholarship to attend a Great Britian school in Oxford England. He grew up in Southeastern Nigeria, and his book took place in the same area. Achebe grew up leading himself into great and better things. His novel follows an Ibo man in an Ibo village through the collision of two different worlds. Throughout the book, Things Fall Apart, Achebe shows Okonkwo as a tragic leader with his flaws and how he tries to make himself better when really the result of those two things together are exactly the opposite of what he wanted. Through the Greek tragic template, Achebe chronicles the fall of an African hero and appeals to the western reader.

Okonkwo is known to be a tragic hero, even though all he did was …show more content…
He was not happy with how his father ended up, looking weak and being useless and lazy. “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 not external but lay deep within himself. It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father.”(Achebe, 13) He did not want to end up like his father, he was doing all he could do be anything but that, and for that reason, he was all about power and overcoming those fears. Okonkwo’s self interpretation of himself makes him believe everything he’s doing is correct since in his eyes he was doing the opposite of what his father had been doing and therefore anything that his father did was …show more content…
He is worried that any sign of weakness will cause him to lose control of his family, position in the village, and even lose himself. His fear of losing his title makes him extremely dominating. Being “a man of action, a man of war”(Achebe, 10), Okonkwo is one to take over any chance he can get to be in control. He always seemed to be looking down on his oldest son, Nwoye, except when Ikemefuna was living with them. “Okonkwo was inwardly pleased at his son’s development and he knew it was due to Ikemefuna. He wanted Nwoye to grow into a tough young man...”(Achebe, 52) To Okonkwo, Ikemefuna was the son he had always wanted. Nwoye was too feminine and did not please him or reach his standards. Once Ikemefuna started to live with them, Nwoye idolized him. Okonkwo too adored Ikemefuna, but could not show that he cared for him due to is fear of being weak. Since he couldn’t stand up for Ikemefuna because he was not his own, he had to do what was right in order to remain his high status. “Later in the day he called Ikemefuna and told him that he was to be taken home the next day. Nwoye overheard it and burst into tears, whereupon his father beat him heavily.”(Achebe, 57) Okonkwo did not like Nwoye crying because he saw it as a feminine trait, and he doesn’t want his son to end up like his father. He wants Nwoye to grow up to be strong and powerful