Essay On Okonkwo In Things Fall Apart

Aristotle once said, “A man doesn’t become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall. An Aristotelian tragic hero must possess specific characteristics.” According to the great Greek philosopher, a tragic hero must fulfill five characteristics in order to be classified as one. They are the hero must be doomed from the start, a reversal of fortune, the flaw of error or judgement, excessive pride, and the discovery that his fate was because of his own doing. Okonkwo, the protagonist in the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, is obsessed and fixated by the thought of growing up to be like his father, who was not masculine. Okonkwo fulfills all of these characteristics which qualify him as a tragic hero because he has a rough childhood,
According to Harold Bloom, “The first challenge Okonkwo was expected to overcome was his father’s reputation- in this case his father had none. However, he was determined to succeed in whatever respect his father had failed, knowing full well that among his ‘people a man was judged according to his worth and not according to the worth of his father’” ( NNoromele 41). His father, Unoka, was not a hard worker and failed to maintain a wealthy family and land. When Okonkwo grew up, he was not given a barn, animals, or a big plot of land unlike most people his age, which is why he has such a driven attitude. All of his accomplishments are all based off of his actions and not on anyone else's. His farm rocketed him up to the top of the clan and his life was at a
Okonkwo is not happy when the white men come with a new way of life and religion. Okonkwo, like earlier, fears change and people who are different than himself. One example of this would be the way he treats his family. Okonkwo is very a disciplined figure and he wants all of his members to be hardworking like himself. Whenever they fail, he tends to beat them. He is also stubborn and does not consider any values of the white men. He kills a messenger at the clan meeting hoping that his warrior like actions will convince convince the clan that they can take over the white men. “Okonkwo stood looking at the dead man. He knew that Umuofia would not go to war. He knew because they had let the other messengers escape. They had broken into tumult instead of action. He discerned fright in that tumult. He heard voices asking: ‘Why did he do it?’ He wiped his machete in the sand and went away” (Achebe 205). Shortly after that, he is found hanging from a tree near his compound. Okonkwo kills himself because he knew that he could not help his people go to war. According to Macdonald, “Okonkwo knows they will never go to war and that his act of hope has now sealed his destruction because he is completely alone in his opposition to authority…” (Friesen 290). The clan members show that they are afraid of Okonkwo and do not want to join him by questioning his actions. Okonkwo reflects that he has failed to start a rally and the