Who Is Okonkwo A Tragic Hero

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is about a tragic hero named Okonkwo living in the struggles of his changing Ibo culture. Okonkwo is a tragic hero with characteristics such as high social class, excessive pride, and most importantly, a tragic flaw. These characteristics described by Aristotle, a famous Greek philosopher, represents Okonkwo’s downfall that leads to his tragedy. Aristotle described that tragic heroes usually start off from a high position in society. This makes the hero’s downfall more dramatic. Even though Okonkwo is not from a wealthy family, he sets himself at a high place to fall by moving up to a high position in society. His fear of failure and being like his dad drives him to be a hard worker. Okonkwo “was a wealthy farmer and
He was not respectful to any lazy or unsuccessful men. One ideal example of this is when he hits his wives for not preparing dinner. Okonkwo values being looked as a powerful man and he loses this by his fear of failure and his over excessive pride to do whatever he wants. When realizes that he lost this it leads to his downfall. Another characteristic Okonkwo has that makes him a tragic hero is his tragic flaw. Okonkwo is “dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness” (13). Although his fear of failure is his motivation to be successful, it also leads to his tragedy. His fear leads him to do actions such as abusing his family members and killing his adopted son. In the end, actions like these, lead to people distancing themselves away from Okonkwo. As the story goes on, people in his community disapprove many of Okonkwo’s decisions. Realizing this, he later commits suicide. His tragic flaw becomes his downfall which is also known as hamartia in Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero. Okonkwo although considered a hero was not perfect. With his qualities of high social class, excessive pride, and a tragic flaw he later faces his