Things Fall Apart – AchebeEssay Preview: Things Fall Apart – AchebeReport this essayAn African TragedyIn Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo is a tragic hero. Aristotle’s Poetics defines a Tragic Hero as a good man of high status who displays a tragic flaw (“hamartia”) and experiences a dramatic reversal (“peripeteia”), as well as an intense moment of recognition (“anagnorisis”). Okonkwo is a leader and hardworking member of the Igbo community of Umuofia whose tragic flaw is his great fear of weakness and failure. Okonkwo’s fall from grace in the Igbo community and eventual suicide, makes Okonkwo a tragic hero by Aristotle’s definition.
Somewhere in here is an image of a man in a black suit with a red top. To the left and right lies a man who could not possibly be mistaken for a white man. The photograph does not capture an image of Okonkwo. As the man turns to look at the camera and a familiar face emerges from the audience, it is almost certain that both Okonkwo and Norman are Caucasians, the majority of whom are of Arab descent. The man in the black suit appears to the American journalist Robert Mauer, who is standing at the center of the audience, and quickly realizes that the man and a white woman in the black suit are the same person.
The man in the black top looks at the camera and immediately recognizes who that white person is. The picture is a reflection of the man’s face, which shows a deep expression of hatred and uncertainty and a long-suffering heart. Okonkwo is a man of great strength and courage, and Norman is a man of weakness. When Okonkwo and Norman are speaking of the Igbo, their words refer to the three persons who lived from the time they were killed by the soldiers of the Nuevanese army during the Nuevanese genocide.(1)
Okonkwo is described as an African Tragedy—a tragic hero whose greatest strength came not only from being a leader and leader, but also from the fear he felt during his final moments and the insecurity that came after. This fear and insecurity caused Norman to lose his father and become one with his brother.(2) This tragic loss led to the genocide of the Igbo and the deaths of about 1,100 people. This was the case after Okonkwo’s mother, Suhara, was killed as a direct result of the violence and oppression experienced by the Nuevanese people.(3)
Norman Norman was born to an African American mother and an African American father who was married to a white woman. Norman had a mother in Ghana, which meant that he had to raise his family there. He began to study by taking a computer program called a Nécole de Ingenierné, an
Somewhere in here is an image of a man in a black suit with a red top. To the left and right lies a man who could not possibly be mistaken for a white man. The photograph does not capture an image of Okonkwo. As the man turns to look at the camera and a familiar face emerges from the audience, it is almost certain that both Okonkwo and Norman are Caucasians, the majority of whom are of Arab descent. The man in the black suit appears to the American journalist Robert Mauer, who is standing at the center of the audience, and quickly realizes that the man and a white woman in the black suit are the same person.
The man in the black top looks at the camera and immediately recognizes who that white person is. The picture is a reflection of the man’s face, which shows a deep expression of hatred and uncertainty and a long-suffering heart. Okonkwo is a man of great strength and courage, and Norman is a man of weakness. When Okonkwo and Norman are speaking of the Igbo, their words refer to the three persons who lived from the time they were killed by the soldiers of the Nuevanese army during the Nuevanese genocide.(1)
Okonkwo is described as an African Tragedy—a tragic hero whose greatest strength came not only from being a leader and leader, but also from the fear he felt during his final moments and the insecurity that came after. This fear and insecurity caused Norman to lose his father and become one with his brother.(2) This tragic loss led to the genocide of the Igbo and the deaths of about 1,100 people. This was the case after Okonkwo’s mother, Suhara, was killed as a direct result of the violence and oppression experienced by the Nuevanese people.(3)
Norman Norman was born to an African American mother and an African American father who was married to a white woman. Norman had a mother in Ghana, which meant that he had to raise his family there. He began to study by taking a computer program called a Nécole de Ingenierné, an
Okonkwo is “a man of action, a man of war” (7) and a member of high status in the Igbo village. He holds the prominent position of village clansman due to the fact that he had “shown incredible prowess in two intertribal wars” (5). Okonkwo’s hard work had made him a “wealthy farmer” (5) and a recognized individual amongst the nine villages of Umuofia and beyond. Okonkwo’s tragic flaw isn’t that he was afraid of work, but rather his fear of weakness and failure which stems from his father’s, Unoka, unproductive life and disgraceful death. “Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and weakness….It was not external but lay deep within himself. It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father.” Okonkwo’s father was a lazy, carefree man whom had a reputation of being “poor and his wife and children had just barely enough to eat they swore never to lend him any more money because he never paid back.” (5) Unoka had never taught Okonkwo what was right and wrong, and as a result Okonkwo had to interpret how to be a “good man”. Okonkwo’s self-interpretation leads him to conclude that a “good man” was someone who was the exact opposite of his father and therefore anything that his father did was weak and unnecessary.
Okonkwo’s fear leads him to treat members of his family harshly, in particular his son, Nwoye. Okonkwo often wonders how he, a man of great strength and work ethic, could have had a son who was “degenerate and effeminate” (133). Okonkwo thought that, “No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children (and especially his women) he was not really a man” (45). Okonkwo wrestles with his fear that any sign of weakness will cause him to lose control of his family, position in the village, and even himself. Like many heroes of classical tragedy, Okonkwo’s tragic flaw, fear, also makes him excessively prideful (“The oldest man present said sternly [to Okonkwo] that those whose palm-kernels were cracked for them by a benevolent spirit should not forget to be humble” [p. 28]). Okonkwo’s downfall (or specifically death) is a result of the changes created by the coming of the British Colonists to Igbo. The introduction of the colonists into the novel causes Okonkwo’s tragic flaw to be exacerbated. Okonkwo construes change as weakness, and as a result of his interpretation Okonkwo only knows how to react to change through anger and strength. He derives great satisfaction, “hubris” or prideful arrogance, from the fact that he is a traditional, self made man and thinks that to change would mean submitting to an outside force (Christianity).
Following Okonkwo’s