Things Fall Apart Tragic Hero Essay

Prior to Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart” the overwhelming majority of books written about Africa had been from a modern European standpoint. In the novel, Achebe describes the struggles of European colonization of Africa through an African’s eyes, which came to be one of the greatest African literary works of all time. Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero is an impressive figure who falls due to a fatal flaw. Also, this hero should be someone the reader can relate to and evokes empathy in the reader, and lastly the tragic hero should be faced in making very tough decisions. In “Things Fall Apart”, the main character, Okonkwo, is a tragic hero because of his great relationship he is able to build with the reader through the beginning

Though Okonkwo’s rise to becoming a lord of his clan was sudden and glorious, a ongoing internal battled brewed in Okonkwo. “One passion that Okonkwo had was to hate everything that Unoka had loved. One of these things was gentleness” (Achebe ____). Expanding on the quote above, Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, was a peace loving man who did not seem to do much except add on his already gargantuan fees to the village. Despising his father, Okonkwo swore to indefinitely be polar opposites to what his father was, avoiding and abolishing weakness and failure throughout his life, therefore furthering the relationship Okonkwo shares with the reader. According to Aristotle, a tragic hero is one who “often suffers more than they deserve” using this, Achebe tugs at the readers’ hearts to make them feel the embarrassment and agony Okonkwo experiences when he accidentally killed someone and was banished from the tribe for seven years. Throughout the first half of the book the reader makes bonds to Okonkwo as the character that will then be broken chains soon to come