Okonkwo Characterization

It is indubitable that Chinua Achebe characterized Okonkwo as a classic tragic hero: quite a common, and perhaps clichéd technique, however the way in which he does this and the extent of its effectiveness exceed this basic linguistic convention. In the book Things Fall Apart, the reader watches as the Igbo society falls apart, and in this we are already provided with a tragic story beginning with something that seems to begin so strong but ending with demise due to its method of approaching and ignorance towards the European threat presented to them. Okonkwo mirrors such a development in that at the beginning of the story, we, the reader, are presented a powerful man who was able to overcome adversities to become one of the more successful and prosperous men in the village, however once again, due to the fact that a part of the system (either Okonkwo or Igboland) is overlooked, we observe eventual and inevitable failure. Correlations can be drawn between the society’s treatment of the Europeans, not believing that they could coexist peacefully and hence feeling the need to treat them hostilely, and Okonkwo’s belief that his masculinity and negotiation or non-physical confrontation cannot coexist without the first being compromised, both predispositions tragically causing death (or such to an extent). Both systems experienced fates in similar fashion to their defects, Okonkwo’s being physical death and Umuofia’s being a great cultural loss, perhaps the death of a culture. In this way, the tragic hero archetype is able to personify a society, especially considering the notion of Okonkwo as a product of society.