Okonkwo as Tragic Hero in Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe

One of the most commonly asked questions about the novel Things Fall Apart is: why did Achebe choose a tragic hero, Okonkwo, as the main character in the story. According to Nnoromele, â€Å"A hero, in the Igbo cultural belief system, is one with great courage and strength to work against destabilizing forces of his community, someone who affects, in a special way, the destinies of others by pursuing his own. He is a man noted for special achievements. His life is defined by ambivalence, because his actions must stand in sharp contrast to ordinary behavior†(Nnoromele). In my opinion, he chose this type of hero to show the correlation between Okonkwo’s rise and fall in the Igbo society to the rise and fall of the Igbo culture itself. Many†¦show more content†¦Okonkwo said yes very strongly; so his chi agreed†(Achebe 27). The proverb from this quote means that if you are willing to work, the gods will reward you. However, once he kills Ikemefuna, everything seems to go down hill from there. His family is banished from the village, he loses everything that he worked hard for his whole life, and life as he knew it had been turned upside down. His chi had changed from being one of the best, to one of the worst in a single gun shot. Bad chi seems to be the main cause of all of Okonwo’s failures, and leads many to perceive him as a tragic hero. On the other hand, another characteristic of Okonkwo that causes him to be seen as a tragic hero is his struggle to deal with the crumbling Igbo culture around him. Upon his return to Umuofia from his motherland, everything has changed among the Igbo people. The white men had completely torn apart a culture which at one point seemed to be so strong. Some had even been converted into Christians and almost everyone was questioning their own beliefs. According to Stephen Criswell, when Okonkwo returned, he had a decision to make between standing up for what he believed in and against what he hated, or complying with the white man’s way and being like everyone else in the tribe(Criswell). Unlike the others, Okonkwo would not back down, and that is why he is a hero. The Igbo culture was slowly being destroyed by theShow MoreRelatedThe Tale of Two Limit Exceeding Men Who Fell Short of Personal Goals1000 Words   |  4 Pagesthe beginning of the hero cycle, reverent tone is used man y times, however, as the character progresses through the book, they begin to show their flaw, which, many times is revealed by the changing tones the author uses. In the conclusion of the story, they accept defeat with honor after discovering their flaw. Changing tones used by both Chinua Achebe in his book, Things Fall Apart, and William Shakespeare in his playwright, Othello, progress the tragic hero cycle of Okonkwo and Othello. 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