Okonkwo As A Hero Essay

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Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is an extraordinary novel based upon a Nigerian tribal man named Okonkwo. Okonkwo is a proud soul who faces many hardships throughout the novel. He battles with his ego and chi and fights with the horrifying thought of change. Okonkwo eventually gives up in the end and hangs himself, but that just proves him to be a hero, tragic, at that. From killing a naive soul to exile and losing his son to change and Christianity, Okonkwo proves himself to be a tragic hero numerous times throughout the novel. Okonkwo fought with himself much more than he fought with other people. He often finds himself battling with his ancestry, as he’s supposed to honor his perished family members. The difficult part about honoring his ancestors is that his father was a coward, in his and many other villagers’ eyes. It’s seen wrong to honor cowards and people who dishonor their families or villages, and Okonkwo wants none of that. He wants to be this great, invincible person who is looked upon as a god, but often worries that he is getting too much like his dishonorable father. Even if he is very much so unlike his father, he is constantly haunted by the thought in the back of his head. Okonkwo is violent and afraid of showing his emotions. Weakness is …show more content…
He’s mostly a hero to his culture, but a hero, nonetheless. He proves his hero-ship by his reactions to deaths around him. For instance, he doesn’t eat or sleep for days after the Ikemefuna incident. At another point, when Ezinma is sick, he goes through the same lack of sleep and food. He gets sorrowful when family members or friends around him are injured or killed, especially when he is involved. Going back to the point of him being the hero of his culture, he stands in his place when it comes to change and he refuses to change his stance. He never lets up on letting his culture disperse, which shows true perseverance and resilience. Until his end, that
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