Things Fall Apart Tragic Hero

The role of a tragic mill within a write up line is essential in a dramatic film or written work. The hero has the standards of becoming a great character that can engage charge of the story with courageous action and bold dialogue. However, since the character is deemed a tragic hero, his flaws will ultimately be his downfall, usually leading to the characters own demise. Nowhere is this ideal of a tragic hero more ger piece of musice(predicate) that in Chinua Achebes novel Things Fall Apart. The story is set in late nineteenth-century in a small village in Nigeria. The tragic hero in this nerve is a young man named Okonkwo.He is a dynamic growing character but is doomed from the beginning of the story with two major flaws that in the end will destroy his character. Okonkwo cannot physically boast any of his emotions because he thinks it is a certain(a) sign of weakness. His second flaw is that if and when he does show any emotion, it is an uncontrollable rage. Both of the se flaws will subscribe to Okonkwo into trouble that he cannot handle. Okonkwo has been taught from a very young age that showing his emotions is a feminine characteristic, a sign of weakness within his culture.This is brought about because when Okonkwo was a child his father was not very problematic with the community or with the elder counsel. The community is the most important aspect of everyday life for Okonkwos people. The village does not give a centralized government, but it is does have democratic ruling through the elder males (Ohadike xxii). Since Okonkwos father was lazy and drank too much, he did not receive any respectfulness from the majority of the community. Okonkwo did not want this for himself so he always displayed a tough exterior so that he could have respect. This characteristic is clearly shown throughout the story.One such example is when Okonkwo becomes very fond of a son that is in his care. Even though he likes the boy, Ikemefuna, he still treated hi m as he treated everyone else with a heavy hand (Achebe 20). Even to a person who was considered part of his own family, he could not show the emotion of affection or graceful attention. In addition to not macrocosm able to show any true emotions, Okonkwo has trouble controlling his temper. His anger and rough treatment of everyone more or less him, particularly his wives, once again springs from the fact that his father was segregated from the community.Also, his short-temper towards his wives may have been fueled by the fact that women were beneath men within the villages social ranking. Okonkwo thinks that the scarcely way he can gain the villages respect is through being bold and strong. It was also very important to show strength during this time of need because there was much change going on in the community itself with the coming of the white man and new traditions. He must absolutely display only anger and strength when the institutions he had fought so hard to sustain c ollapse in the verbalism of European colonialism (Gikandi x).The most infamous scene of Okonkwos irrational anger and lack of respect is when he beats his wife for not preparing the meal for their children during the Week of Peace (Achebe 21). This is just a single case of Okonkwo beating one of his wives, but the village punishes him more severely because it is during their Week of Peace in which everyone should be nice and kind to their neighbor. The village was shocked because no one ever breaks the rules of that week. Even the oldest men could only remember one or two other occasions somewhere in the dim sometime(prenominal) (Achebe 22).Another instance where Okonkwos disorderly behavior takes control of his actions is when he kills the boy he was fond of, Ikemefuna. Okonkwos clansmen are attacking the boy, so Ikemefuna runs to seek help from Okonkwo. However, since Okonkwo does not want to look weak in front of his fellow tribesmen, he cuts the boy down (Ward 1). He lets his rage and pride take over and kills the boy whom he considered his own son. The characteristics of a tragic hero are clearly visible within Okonkwo. If his ideals were everyday in someone during this day and age in the United States, it would be quite interesting.It is almost dread to say, but someone with those characteristics would be very successful in the competitive and fast-pace market of the United States. They could take charge of their business career as well as not buckling under pressure payable to the lack of physical emotions. Okonkwos manners are instinctual in most humans, no matter how original or modern. Wall Street brokers and fast-talking businessmen can be compared to primitive African men whose attitudes have been masculine-based even before the advent of the white man (Mezu 1).In a country based on the sizeable business ethic of only the strong survive, there is no doubt Okonkwo could make it far. It can be easily concluded that Okonkwos flaws were the lead ing means of his characters destruction. His lack of emotions and uncontainable anger were defined components for the deterioration of his character. However, the meaning in Chinua Achebes novel Things Fall Apart would have been lost without Okonkwo as the dominant character. The tragic hero is still and always will be the stable character of any deeply meaningful epic novel or movie.