Okonkwo's Journey

Okonkwo very much fits the ideal of a heroic character. He holds the strength and sense of duty to protect his people, but also has humbling flaws of insecurity and fear. His journey is also very close to that of Aristotle’s tragic hero, a noble man who falls from greatness but recovers and learns something new. Okonkwo is introduced to the reader first as a character who has to overcome his father's reputation, and then someone who has to battle his own insecurities. At the end of the book, he takes what he has gained from his past two experiences and uses it to defend his village from the outside force of the missionaries.

Okonkwo’s beginnings fill the first two criteria for a tragic hero, noble status with a humble past. His social position is shown by his having three wives and a title. Also, though not discussed among the people, he wears a mask and helps make the decisions of the people through acting as a speaker for a spirit. To gain this position, he had to deal with his father’s debt, poor soil, and lack of yams to grow their own wealth. He also had to prove his strength and loyalty by wrestling the Cat. His lower initial status allow the reader to relate more to Okonkwo. From his elevation, Okonkwo is able to gain the power and mindset of having to protect Umuofia.

Book two of Things Fall Apart gives the other portion of the characterization of a tragic hero. After Okonkwo commits a “female” murder and is banished for six years, he has reached his downfall. Like most tragic heroes, he is not fully to blame because the gun exploded without his intention to injure anyone. In Mbanta, Okonkwo first hears of and begins to resist the missionaries. In this, he begins to learn how to approach offenses as well as let others take charge in certain instances. One example of this is his return to Umuofia, when he realises that he will not be able to give his voice completely in making decisions that impact the entire tribe (though in his head he still thinks they should use more aggressive in getting rid of Christianity).

At the end of the novel, though it does finish with Okonkwo’s suicide, there is a feeling of seriousness but not complete despair. Though he showed growth, Okonkwo still kept the impulsive, insecure side he showed in Ikemefuna’s death and killed again in the same fashion. He showed a journey and gaining notoriety, falling in an accident, and then rebuilding himself to protect others in the style of a tragic hero, but he did not develop enough to save himself.