Okonkwo Tragic Hero

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A tragic hero is someone who makes a judgment or error that inevitably leads to his/her own destruction. The book Things Fall Apart tells two stories, one of a strong man of a village in Nigeria with conflict between Okonkwo the main character and society. And the second, the clash of cultures and the destruction of Okonkwo's world with the arrival of aggressive European missionaries. Okonkwo is a tragic hero because he was an important leader in his village but made errors in judgement which led to his own destruction.

Okonkwo was an important leader in his village because in the book things fall apart “He had brought honor to his village “(pg.3) this quote makes Okonkwo an important leader because in Okonkwo's village igbo, honor is very important. Okonkwo was also a very popular in his village and everyone was very fond of him “His fame …show more content…
Okonkwo couldn't even sleep because he couldn’t stop thinking about what he did. Another fatal error in judgement and weakness is when shot at one of his wives “He threw down the gun and jumped into the barn, and there lay the woman very much shaken and frightened but quite unhurt” (achebe 61) when he shot at his wife it did not show weakness but showed fatal error because if he would of shot and killed her he would probably have another breaking point like when he killed ikemefuna. The last fatal error Okonkwo made was when he killed someone and hung himself on a tree “they came to the tree from which Okonkwo’s body was dangling and they stopped dead “ (Achebe 207) when he killed himself it showed weakness because he killed himself and that wasn't a very strong thing to do in his village but yet it showed that he had

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