Paste your essay in here… Okonkwo the Hero
3) “That man was one of the greatest men in Umuofia.” How far is Okonkwo the hero of Achebe’s Things Fall Apart?
The novel “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe portrays Okonkwo as a tragic hero in the text. In literature, a tragic hero is, according to “Litcharts.com” “A type of character in a tragedy, and is usually the protagonist. Tragic heroes typically have heroic traits that earn them the sympathy of the audience, but also have flaws or make mistakes that ultimately lead to their own downfall.” In the beginning of the novel, Okonkwo is far into the tragic hero fate. The time the novel takes place is in middle to late nineteenth century Nigeria, during the spread of Christianity though Nigeria. White men from other parts of the world settle throughout Nigeria and many tribes convert to Christianity. When the novel starts, Okonkwo's village Umuofia has not yet been visited by any white person. Everyone in the village believes in the Igbo religion and stick to their traditional ways. A few years later, this all changes and Okonkwo tries to stop it. He tries to do the right thing and save his family and village but because he is a tragic hero, this of course fails and Okonkwo ends up making mistakes and failing.
Evidence to support this claim can be found in the novel and many other novels and stories with characters who had the same demise. The reader learns quickly that Okonkwo is an abusive husband and father. In many parts of the novel, he is harming his wives and children. In page thirty four of the novel “Things Fall Apart”, it states “Okonkwo’s second wife had merely cut a few leaves off it to wrap some food, and she said so. Without further argument Okonkwo gave her a sound beating and left her and her only daughter weeping.” and the same page “the wife who had just been beaten murmured something about guns that never shot. Unfortunately for her, Okonkwo heard it and ran madly into his room for the loaded gun, ran out again and aimed at her as she clambered over the dwarf wall of the barn. He pressed the trigger and there was a loud report accompanied by the wail of his wives and children.” These two quotes are perfect examples of how Achebe made Okonkwo a tragic hero by giving him a quick temper and anger for characteristics. It’s obvious Okonkwo wants the best for his family by the way he treats his sons, who he is proud of and wants them to do well in the village, yet he still beats them and mistreats them.
Okonkwo’s path to failure started when he shot the gun and it exploded in his hand, a shard piercing a recently deceased tribe member’s sixteen year old son in his heart. Okonkwo and his family had to flee the village as the clanspeople burned his compound down out of tradition. He fled to Mbanta, his motherland where he took refuge for “seven wasted and weary years were at last dragging to a close” at the start of chapter nineteen on page one hundred and forty three. Achebe made the first clue that Okonkwo was failing an accident because he wanted to make the reader pity Okonkwo and make it feel like it was all because of this accident. A tragic hero story has to in a way make the reader feel bad for the hero, so this is the part where Achebe includes this. Achebe wants the reader to feel bad that Okonkwo has to uproot his entire family and move away. According to the novel, as Okonkwo stayed in Mbanta, Christianity finally reached Umuofia and white men had built a missionary nearby the village. Even though the white men were judged and their church built in the evil forest, they still gained followers from the village and many young clansmen switched to Christianity. When Okonkwo arrives back to his compound, he has already heard the news and knows he had just missed an opportunity to save his clan from Christianity. On page one hundred and fifty one, the novel states “He had just lost the chance to lead his warlike clan against the new religion, which, he was told, had gained ground.” this quote shows the first sign that Okonkwo had failed.
The second sign was when his son Nwoye joined the Christians. When Nwoye was spotted in the church by someone, Okonkwo quickly heard and nearly killed his son. Nwoye ran away and Okonkwo lost his first son to the new religion. As time goes on, the white men create a form of government and clansmen start to get arrested and hung for trying to stop Christianity. In part three of the novel “Things fall apart” the white men have started to take control of the village. By this time, Okonkwo is too late to do anything and watches as things literally fall apart around him. As his village slowly leaves behind sacred traditions and the Igbo religion, Okonkwo realises he has failed and when one of the clan meetings is stopped by the white men, Okonkwo attacks and beheads one of the messengers bringing the news, goes back to his compound and hangs himself, his tragic fate.
Another prime example of Okonkwo’s reason to be a tragic hero comes from not only the novel “Things Fall Apart”. Other famous tragic heroes such as Romeo from Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare and Severus Snape from the book “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone” by J.K. Rowling all show the same traits as Okonkwo. All of these characters try their best to do good but they are all destined to fail. Aristotle, an ancient greek philosopher, was the man who created the tragic hero ideology for literature. According to Aristotle, all tragic heroes have a Hamartia, or a fatal flaw in their characteristics which is the reason they fail. In the novel, Okonkwo’s fatal flaw is his pride. Okonkwo believed in showing anger and no affection towards his family members so that they could be like him, he feared that his sons would become like his father, this all lead to his demise. Achebe also wanted to show how Christianity spread through Nigeria and affected villages such as Umuofia and that nothing could stop the pacification and colonisation of Nigeria by other countries.