Okonkwo Tragic Hero

Aristotle loosely defines a Tragic Hero as a protagonist who must evoke from the audience a sense of pity of fear saying “The change of fortune presented must not be the spectacle of a virtuous man brought from prosperity to adversity”, or a character who makes a judgement error that ultimately leads in his own destruction . The novel Things Fall Apart definitely depicts the classic literary details of a tragedy. We have a young man brought up from nothing who had to overcome the obstacles and disadvantages that others were privileged to in order to gain honor, wealth and respect. He chose not to follow in the footsteps of his father and instead to overcome adversity and he dreamed of becoming one of the greatest tribesmen. However, one fatal …show more content…
Okonkwo had clearly washed his hands and so he ate with kings and elders” (p 8). At a young age Okonkwo had accomplished so much, he was respected throughout the village and the clan. His kinsmen looked up to him and he was a leader among the men. One fateful day, during a funeral precession, Okonkwo was taking part in the ceremonial gun salute of honor when his gun had exploded and a piece of iron had pierced the heart of the dead man’s sixteen year old son. The punishment for such a crime was banishment (seven years due to inadvertency) (p 124). And so the fall of our hero begins. Although he wasn’t disrespected and the clan knew it was a female crime, tradition still stated banishment, and Okonkwo hated that idea. He would flee to his motherland and make a temporary home with his Uncle and his kin. But Okonkwo lived with the foresight of returning home and continuing where he left off. Although he worked very hard to have successful crops on his new farm, he lacked enthusiasm. He no longer gained pleasure from the work that he used to. “He had been cast out like a fish onto a dry, sandy beach, panting” (p 131). Although Okonkwo believed that he was dealing with the situation in the respect that any man would have, he was stuck 7 years in the past, as the evolution of the tribes took place, Okonkwo stood still. Frozen with refusal to admit that change was

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