Okonkwo Tragic Hero Analysis

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Okonkwo tragic hero

Things Fall Apart by Chinowa Achiebe is an African story that portrays the story telling style of African poetry. Okonkwo was a tragic hero throughout the book which in truth brought the book to life. The people of the tribe exiled Okonkwo which is is the turning point in the story. Achebe characterized Okonkwo as a tragic hero to show the effects of the fear of failure. Okonkwo is considered a tragic hero. A tragic hero holds a position of power and prestige. Okonkwo’s tragic flaw is his fear of weakness and failure. Okonkwos biggest fear is the fear of failure and Achebe brings his negative aspects throughout the book to show the consequences of this fatal flaw. Things Fall Apart is a well defined book in the sense of African story telling technique. Fear of Failure is a big problem throughout the book. The book Things Fall Apart is vivid with description about the main character Okonkwo. Okonkwo gets in trouble easily because he breaks rules without purpose. Okonkwo was sent away because of his fear for failure as he always wanted to be the best. This fear built up in him because when he grew up he saw his father becoming the coward that he was. He also built up the fear that he will not fail no matter what. His tragic moments come in the middle or rising action of the book and therefor the book comes alive. Okonkwo had bad chi (energy) therefor the smallest things annoyed him. In the book he beats his wife, kills an adopted child and it brings out the determination in him that he can not fail no matter what.

Growing up as a child is a crucial aspect in humanity and all children look up to a role model to learn from and it is usually a father figure. In the book Okonkwo’s role model was his father Unok...

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.... Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna because the elders of the nine villages requested him to make a sacrifice by killing the child who calls him father. He tarnished his reputation by killing Ikemefuna because according to the village he broke the laws of the earth which states that you can not kill anyone who is a part of your tribe. "His life had been ruled by a great passion--to become one of the lords of the clan" (131) His passion back-fired and as a result he could not overcome his fear.

Okonkwo makes all of these terrible choices because he’s afraid of being seen as weak and a failure. Okonkwo contemplates his consequences of his actions and his disability to make good decisions overpower his care for the village and his hard working personality. Okonkwo has a lot of good qualities of a leader. On the other hand the negative qualities in him outweigh the positive.

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