Things Fall Apart

Things Fall Apart

In Chinua Achebe’s book Things Fall Apart the main character Okonkwo is a tragic hero. Aristotle said that a good tragic hero must fall because of some character flaw. In Okonkwo’s case; fear, pride, and anger are his tragic flaws. This book teaches us about human nature.

Okonkwo’s fear led to his downfall. It did so because he was afraid of being lazy and week or “womanish” like his father Unko. He also wanted to have titles and be respected unlike his father. Okonkwo’s dad was a bad, lazy farmer. He could not blame himself for his crop problems so he went to a spirit and clamed he was cursed. The spirit said he wasn’t cursed and he should go fix it himself. Okonkwo was afraid of being like that so he took it upon himself to fix his problems if he had any. Unko also did not do much for the community. Okonkwo grew up to be a success and tried to do everything he could for the community. He also got many titles. Okonkwo also feared weakness. He would do anything to be seen as strong, even kill his son. Okonkwo killed his son Ikemefuna in the evil forest because he was ‘afraid of being thought weak” by his tribe. Fear was also a part of his downfall because he did not fear the Christians at first. “The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.” Pg. 152. Instead of fearing the Christians and talking caution they were amused by them and let them build a church in the evil forest. They didn’t fear them because they thought that their spirits were more powerful then the Christians god, but when they did not die in the evil forest they saw that the Christian god had “unbelievable power” witch led to the first converts that began to tear the clan apart and no longer act as one.

Okonkwo’s pride was also a major tragic flaw that led to his downfall. Okonkwo’s pride and confidence in his religion helped the Christians accomplish what they did. He allowed them to come and build their church in the evil forest he allowed that to happen because he had a great deal of pride in his religion and he believed the evil forest would kill them. Later in the book however, Okonkwo’s pride in his culture forces him to push the Christians away. Because of his pride he hates the Christians for introducing a new religion into the clan. Okonkwo also had pride in his clan. He was too proud to let the Christians take over and convert his tribe without a fight.