Who Is Okonkwo A Tragic Hero

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe shows and explains the african culture during the time period that had much change in the community. Many stories and textbooks are made by the winning side. This story however is explained from the opposite point of view. The character Okonkwo from Things Fall Apart meets Aristotle’s definition of the tragic hero to an extent because only some of his characteristics lead to a downfall in the story. The characteristics he fits by the definition of tragic hero are he has a mixture of good and bad in his personality, he has a fatal flaw which leads to his downfall and he has a large capacity of suffering. The characteristics that don't fit him are that he didn't really go a journey and his downfall did not preceded by self realization. Okonkwo’s ambition was to not be like his father. He wanted to show he stood on some sort of class and had leadership skills.
Okonkwo fits some of the definitions of a tragic hero. A huge negative characteristic Okonkwo had was that he is a very short tempered person and a positive thing about
“He could return to the clan after seven years.” Okonkwo and his family had to leave their friends and their house to find another place to live. The journey to his mother’s village wasn’t far from his own village but once he got there he would have to restart farming and gaining status. Okonkwo had lost his status in his village when he came back. People had stopped respecting him and stopped taking his opinion seriously. Okonkwo’s anger leads him to kill the messenger. He knew he was going to die but he killed himself because he didn’t want to die from the enemy’s side. “It is an abomination for a man to take his own life.” Okonkwo decides that there is no reason for him to live. His life was ruined because of the things he did, These examples show that Okonkwo doesn’t fit Aristotle’s definitions of a tragic