The Tragedy of Heroes Blog

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Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is a story about Okonkwo as a tragic hero. He is a man of great strength, honor, and temper. His main downfall is his rashness and his tragic flaw is a deep fear of weakness and failure. Because of this, he becomes harsh and violent to his family. For instance, he beats his wife during the Week of Peace. Also, he participated in killing Ikemefuna because he doesn’t want other people to think he is weak. Later, he and his family are exiled. By the end of the story, the white missionaries appear in Umuofia and Nwoye converts to Christianity. At the end of the story, Okonkwo hangs himself because of his tragic flaw, which is against the Igbo culture. Okonkwo isn’t only tragic because he dies but rather of his own downfall. He isn’t a modern tragic hero because he is a popular person among his clan but died at the end

 

My concept of a hero differs greatly from the tragic heroes of classic literature. For example, my grandfather is heroic to me because he never gets angry and always be calm. He always tells me to be calm and never make a decision when I’m angry because it can lead me to bad things. He also told me that there is always a solution to every problem, so getting mad is not the best way out. However, this is the opposite of Okonkwo because he has his fears and behaves violently.

 

I think in today’s world, there are still heroes out there that influence the society. Heroes in today’s world greatly differ from the past. Country’s president and leaders are considered heroic nowadays, since it is unlikely to see a hero that holds a belief like in Umuofia society. A hero in today’s world are mostly the people that are in charge of the country or people that do good things for society. I think it is important for us to have heroes because they are likely to have special ability to do certain things that nobody could.