Things Fall Apart Was Okwonko a Hero - 888 Words

Things Fall Apart In most stories there is a distinct hero. One person that stands above all else, and really shows the human struggle. It is safe to asume that the main character in the hero in most stories. Howerver in the book Things Fall Apart the main character Okonkwo does not show heroistic atributes. At times during the book, he even could be classified as the antagonist. Okwonkwo was not a hero. Okwonko did not have a solid family conection. Infact he absolutly resented his dad, and his oldest child did not want anything to do with him. Even as a little boy he had resented his father s failure and weakness, and even now he still remembered how he had suffered when a playmate had told him that his father was agbala. (†¦show more content†¦It was not uncommen in the igbo society for husbands to beat their wives, but beating your wife during peace week was unthinkable. (Achebe 29) In his anger he had forgotten that it was the Week of Peace, but Okonkwo was not the man to stop beating somebody half-way through, not even for fear of a goddess. Okwonkwo was so fixiated on showing his wife a lesson that he put his whole can in trouble. in their culture they believe that if they beat some one during the Week of Peace then they will anger the earth goddess, and she will keep the yams from growing. He broke one of their most sacred rules just to teach a lesson. Aside from beating his children and his wives Okwonko is a murderer. Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him dow. He was afraid of being thought weak. (Achebe 61) In order to look strong Okonkwo did things that a hear never would have done. Above all Okonkwo was stuborn. Once Okonkwo had his mind set on somthing, he never deviated from it. If you split another yam that size I shall break your way... Inwardly Okonkwo knew that the boys were still to young to understand fully the difficult art of preparing seed yams. But he thought one could not begin to early. (Achebe 33) He thought that by changi ng his mind, he was showing weakness. If he showed weakness then he thought he would be considered worthless just like his father. He had Just sent Okonkwo sShow MoreRelatedOkonkwo: A Tragic Hero1836 Words   |  8 Pagessuffering or defeat† (dictionary.com). Characteristics such as arrogance, hubris and ambition are common to most tragic heroes and all lead to their demise. All of these characteristics are present in Okonkwo, the protagonist in Things Fall Apart. Throughout the tragedy Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the main character Okonkwo is proven to be a tragic character when he is faced with the task of overcoming challenges between himself, society and his own destiny. One of the biggest internal conflictsRead MoreThings Fall Apart By Chinua Achebe3287 Words   |  14 PagesChinua Achebe’s postcolonial novel Things Fall Apart was first published in 1958 and narrates the fall of a great Ibo (Nigerian) warrior, Okwonko, after the arrival of white colonialists. Tony Harrison’s Selected Poems was published in 2006 and includes poems taken from his renowned sonnet sequence School of Eloquence, which draw upon Harrison’s own upbringing and pay tribute to the challenges of the British working class. Finally William Golding’s dystopian novel Lord of the Flies, first published