Things fall Apart and Okonkwo free essay sample

Both the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, and its main character Okonkwo closely adhere to the definitions of a classic Greek tragedy and a typical tragic hero. First of all, Okonkwo is a tragic hero by the Greek definition. While Okonkwo wasn’t born to a nobleman or king (as the definition of a tragic hero states), he was a man of high status and respect in his community, as Obierika stated near the end of the book. â€Å"That man was one of the greatest men in Umuofia. † (Achebe 208). Second, the novel follows the format of a Greek tragedy by presenting Okonkwo as a mixed character. He was a mixed character in that he was neither thoroughly good nor thoroughly bad. His good side was shown in the novel at times, like when it was shown that he wanted Nwoye to be manly only because â€Å"He wanted him to be a prosperous man. † (53). However, at other times, he was very misguided and wrong, which led him to make large mistakes with very negative repercussions. One example would be when Okonkwo’s youngest wife, Ojiugo had forgotten to make his lunch. â€Å"And when she returned he beat her very heavily. In his anger he had forgotten that it was the week of peace. † (29). This violent and misguided mistake shows the side of Okonkwo that we may not think of as the perfect hero, but this violent and angry side of him balances with the side that wants to see Nwoye succeed, which makes him a mixed character. The next component of both a tragic hero and the tragic hero’s story that Things Fall Apart adheres to is the tragic fall. Okonkwo’s tragic fall was killing Ikemefuna, his adopted son. This event was his tragic fall because it led to other events in his life such as killing the son of Ogbuefi Ezeudu (the reversal), and his eventual exile. Okonkwo’s friend Obierika even foreshadowed the significance and imminent downfall that would come of his killing of Ikemefuna when he told him that â€Å"What you have done will not please the earth. It is the kind of action for which the goddess wipes out whole families. † (67). So, because he killed his own adopted son, it was only fitting that the reversal of both Okonkwo and the story that follows him would be the fallout from accidentally killing another man’s son. This directly led to his seven-year exile from Umuofia. This could very easily be interpreted as the earth goddess’s punishment that Obierika spoke of. Okonkwo’s accidental killing of Ogbuefi Ezeudu’s son was the reversal of this story because as the definition of a reversal states, it did â€Å"catapult him from the heights of happiness to the depths of misery. † As stated by Achebe when Okonkwo arrived in Mbanta, â€Å"His life had been ruled by a great passion to become one of the lords of the clan. That had been his life-spring. And he had all but achieved it. Then everything had been broken. He had been cast out of his clan like a fish onto a dry, sandy beach, panting. † (131). A classic Greek tragedy typically has a main character with a tragic flaw. Things Fall Apart follows this classic formula in that Okonkwo’s tragic flaw was his persistent and lifelong fear of being considered a failure like his father. â€Å"But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness. . . It was not external but lay deep within himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father. † (13). His flaw lived on throughout his entire life and the anger and fear of resembling his father eventually led to his own death. The next component of this story that makes Okonkwo a tragic hero is his hubris. Okonkwo’s hubris is that he believes that everything he does is right, and if someone does something he wouldn’t, it is considered wrong and weak. He is also arrogant and dismissive of others, especially those who contradict him. For example, â€Å"a man had contradicted him at a kindred meeting which they held to discuss the ancestral feast. Without looking at the man Okonkwo had said: ‘This meeting is for men. ’ The man who had contradicted him had no titles. That was why he had called him a woman. Okonkwo knew how to kill a man’s spirit. † (26). His dismissiveness towards this man is just one example of his hubris. The next part of a Greek tragedy, is the tragic hero’s moment of recognition of â€Å"the truth of his situation and/or of his identity. † Okonkwo’s moment of recognition came when he realized that his people weren’t going to fight back against the white men and their religion. The arrival of these foreigners and their strange religion had brought the death of his clan and way of life with them. â€Å"Okonkwo was deeply grieved. And it was not just a personal grief. He mourned for the clan, which he saw breaking up and falling apart, and he mourned for the warlike men of Umuofia, who had so unaccountably become soft like women. † (183). At this point in the story of Okonkwo, he realizes the grim truth about the fate of his culture and people. Finally, Things Fall Apart, the story of Okonkwo, adheres to the model of a classic Greek tragedy in that it has a final katharsis, or â€Å"tragic representation of suffering and defeat that leaves an audience feeling, not depressed, but relieved and even elevated,† (Greek tragedy and tragic hero explanation sheet). Things Fall Apart’s katharsis, or emotional relief came when Okonkwo killed himself. Although such an event may seem like something that would make the reader feel defeated and depressed, it was through his suicide that Okonkwo made one final protest or stand against the white man. His suicide also allowed him to escape his fate of being killed by the British, which shows us that although the destruction of the Ibo culture and way of life was imminent, there was still some spirit, some fight to retain their ways left among the defeated Ibo people. Things Fall Apart and it’s main character Okonkwo adhere to the definition of a Greek tragedy and tragic hero in that Okonkwo is a mixed character with a tragic flaw and hubris who experiences a tragic fall and reversal in his life, that leads to a moment of recognition and eventually, katharsis.