Things Fall Apart Research Paper

Things Fall Apart functions as a tragedy because the white missionaries invaded Umuofia and caused a lot of suffering and agony. Before the white men came, Umuofia was a well-structured clan which had a judicial system and a common belief. When the white men come however, they cause division amongst the clan, thus, causing conflict immediately. Since the tragedy of Okonkwo being exiled occurred, the clan lost one of the most ambitious men they had. With his absence, it allowed the white men to easily take over Umuofia due to the lack of resistance by the villagers. When Okonkwo returned to the village, he sees that it is too late to do anything because the white men “has put a knife on the things that [held] together and [they] have fallen

This one tragic flaw influenced many decisions that he made in his life which resulted in his death. Okonkwo could be compared to Brutus easily because they both had tragic flaws that influenced their poor decisions and when they saw it was too late to save their fatherland, they took their lives in order to not be seen as weak. Ikemefuna was a boy that he truly cared for, however, he felt that he must kill him because of his tragic flaw of being portrayed as weak. This is also similar to the death of Caesar because Brutus had to kill him in order to show that he is truly ambitious. His tragic flaw was caused by Unoka’s weakness, however, at the end, he dies of a shameful death as well because his tragic flaw heavily influenced all of his actions. After his exilation is over and he returns home, he sees that they have taken over his land because the people were too weak to fight back. He tried to restore strength by beheading one of the kotma however, no one supported him and stood back. At this point, Okonkwo sees that everyone has become too weak due to the corruption of the white men. The only way to escape being portrayed as weak he believed was killing himself in order to avoid his flaw. Another characteristic of an Aristotelian tragic hero is the horrible consequences that fate bring. In the story, fate worked against his favor a lot which led to his