Okonkwo: The Nigerian Tragic Hero
In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Achebe brilliantly portrays precolonial Ibo society. Moreover, Achebe does not present Ibo culture as superior to Western cultures and values, but wants the reader to understand the loss of one world and the creation of another. To express that destruction of the old, precolonial Nigeria, Okonkwo becomes the tragic hero. Like all tragic heroes, Okonkwo is doomed because of his flaws, which include irrational anger, violence, an insatiable ambition, hubris, and events beyond his control.
Throughout the novel, Achebe provides several examples of Okonkwo’s heroic and masculine feats. These include wrestling, which Achebe reveals when the narrator states, "At an early age he had achieved fame as the greatest wrestler in all of the land."(Achebe 27) Achieving masculine feats such as wrestling increases one’s status in Ibo society. In addition, Okonkwo also excels in war, another masculine and heroic accomplishment, which is why he sends the message of war to the enemies of Umuofia.
Furthermore, Okonkwo rises in social class because of his own hard work and determination, another admirable and heroic virtue. His idle father left nothing for Okonkwo, but he gains his own yam farm and eventually becomes wealthy by owning many yam farms and wives. Indeed, an older man of the village astutely observes, “Looking at a king’s mouth, one would never think he sucked his mother’s breast” (26). Okonkwo’s rise from poverty further illustrates his heroic virtues because all Aristotelian tragic heroes must undergo peripeteia, or a reversal of fortune caused by one of their flaws, or hamartia. In this case, his flaw is his ambition. His fear of being a powerless, worthless man like his father motivates him to work relentlessly to appear a man of worth. Perhaps the ultimate expression of Okonkwo’s ambition is his murder of Ikemefuna, the captive from another village that he sees as his own son because “he was afraid of being thought weak” (61).
Irrational rage is another significant flaw. Okonkwo mistreats his wives, beats his children, especially Nwoye, the oldest son, and even strikes his wife during the Week of Peace for not cooking his meal. He does not use his anger wisely and beats Nwoye when he sees signs of laziness (or characteristics of his father) in him (13).
Besides, he does not show any emotion because he perceives it as unmanly, meaning Okonkwo is not balanced. Before Ikemefuna’s death, Okonkwo treats him “as he treated everyone else – with a heavy hand” (28). He could not even show affection to the people he loves, including his daughter Ezinma. By ignoring his unconscious feminine mind, Okonkwo murders Ikemefuna in front of the other men and shows no remorse, even after his friend Obierika says “What you have done will not please the Earth. It is the kind of action for which the goddess wipes out whole families” (67). His callous murder of the boy who calls him father (28) and the manner in which he replies to Obierika’s warning reveals his apathy.
Indubitably, the classic flaw of hubris also plays a role in Okonkwo’s downfall. An endemic fault in tragic heroes from Odysseus to Oedipus, Okonkwo is another arrogant hero. When Osugo, a man with no title comes to the kindred meeting, Okonkwo states, “This meeting is for men” (26). The oldest man present who reminds him of his humble origins later rebukes him. After achieving success despite early disadvantages, he became exceedingly arrogant, which is one of his reasons for abusing Nwoye when he detects laziness in the boy.
In addition, Okonkwo faces forces beyond his control. The European colonizers and Christian missionaries inevitably triumph and initially place Iboland under indirect British rule. Therefore, Okonkwo’s conflict with the European colonizers is rather reminiscent of the battle between fate and free will in that he and Oedipus fight losing battles. When Okonkwo returns to Umuofia after seven years of exile, he hopes for another reversal of fortune, which can be assumed from the text because he hopes to use his beautiful daughters to arrange marriages that benefit him. However, Okonkwo finds the white European missionaries and the District Commissioner who show no respect for traditional Ibo religion and force Christianity on them, which strengthens divisions in Ibo society as outcasts and the youth begin to convert. Comparable to Okonkwo’s struggle against European imperialism, Oedipus’ attempt to evade the prophecy demonstrates the fallacy of opposing the unavoidable. Both tragic heroes attempt in vain to aspire to great things in a new world. The old Umuofia no longer exists and nothing can bring it back, even Okonkwo’s valiant attempts. When Okonkwo endeavors to obtain support for a possible rebellion by killing the court messenger who came to stop their meeting, the crowd asks, “Why did he do it” (205)? It is at that moment Okonkwo realizes there is no way to restore the past and walks away from the crowd.
Naturally, Okonkwo could not live in colonial Umuofia and commits suicide. The irony in his suicide is great because the only people who can bury his corpse are the British and their Christian servants, the same people he resists. He also knows suicide is an abomination, which suggests Okonkwo did not even want his fellow villagers to touch his corpse. This appalling death brings about catharsis or a release of emotion and sympathy for the tragic hero, which concurs with the Aristotelian tragedy. Thus, Okonkwo displays all of the characteristics of a tragic hero according to Aristotle and his flaws cause his downfall.
Works Cited
Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart: A Novel. New York: Anchor Books, 1994.
Wow, great essay!
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