Okonkwo Tragic Hero

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In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe the main character Okonkwo is a tragic hero. There are five main traits that make up a tragic hero. Okonkwo carries three of these traits which coincide with Aristotle's tragic hero. Those being that he is very flawed, he bears no responsibility for possessing this flaw, and because of his flaw he is eventually greatly wounded. A situation which displays Okonkwo’s flaw is when his own son Nwoye becomes enthralled with the new religion. Nwoye eventually leaves to join it. Okonkwo views this as weak and lashes out, beating Nwoye. After this he reveals the root of his problem with Nwoye leaving. “To abandon the gods of one’s father and go about with a lot of effeminate men clucking like old hens was the very …show more content…

It would show that he let anger and fear towards a man long dead affect how he lives his life. Okonkwo’s anger does not only hurt others but in the end he hurts himself the most. Okonkwo cannot bear to see his village turn to the Christian faith or go back to prison so he commits suicide in order to spare him the he pain of seeing those things come into action. In doing so commits one of the most cowardly acts known to his tribe. “It is an abomination for a man to take his own life. It is an offense to the Earth, and a man who commits it will not be buried by his clansmen,”(Achebe 170). Although Okonkwo brought about his own demise. He did so in more ways than one. Had Okonkwo not let his fear and anger drive him into killing the revolting against the new religion he would still be alive and well. Okonkwo had spent his entire life trying to be the strongest warrior in his tribe but in the end he commits an act that is viewed as even more cowardly than living a life as his father did. None of his actions to be viewed as mighty or powerful count for

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