The Tragic Hero #TFA

"There is no one way to anything"

"Where one thing stands, another stands beside it"

— Chinua Achebe

Primarily comprehending Achebe's choice of crafting Okonkwo as a tragic hero would necessitate a rudimentary grasp on the requisites of the archetype: according to Aristotle, a tragic hero can be defined as "a main character, who confronts his downfall due to fate, his mistake, or any other social reason."

Now, taking into consideration Achebe's construction of Okonkwo's character, the protagonist has been projected as a mighty man of a superior socio-political status amongst his clan members in the village of Umuofia, and ultimately experiences his downfall in the form of hanging himself in despair of the situation begotten by the intrusion of European essentializing in his village. While it is unequivocally cemented, through an amalgamation of indicative factors, that Okonkwo reflects a tragic hero archetype, the central intrigue lies in the reason Achebe chose to cast the character under such a light.

The most compelling reason would be Achebe's desire to create a distinct dichotomy between the authentic Igbo culture and the misconceptions that permeated the same. For instance, the Igbo people are portrayed as a group that understands the duality in the nature of life and appreciates that every facet of life has multiple surfaces. The Igbo people refrain from a stringent orthodox perspective or fanaticism of any kind, which mirrors how the notion of a balance of ideas is well ingrained in the Igbo realm.

Okonkwo, however, does not parallel with the quintessential Igbo man's archetype; Achebe purposefully scaffolded Okonkwo's fatally flawed depiction in order to draw a distinction between Okonkwo's characteristics and how he was not reflective of true Igbo values and intricacies. Although incipiently materialized as a revered figure in the Igbo realm, Okonkwo progressively evolves as a character that seems ostracized from both the worlds of the Igbo and the Missionaries as his hamartia, comprising of elements of hypermasculinity, hubris and his insatiable lust for authority, lead him to being a misfit for either of the realms that he was forcefully immersed in.

Moreover, Okonkwo's tragic demise was metaphorically reflective of the downfall of the Igbo world in Lower Niger as the force of the White missionaries had overrun the clan and imposed on them brutalities that commenced the fragmentation of the culture.

Thus, all in all, Achebe's characterization of Okonkwo in pertinence to the archetype of a tragic hero served purposes manifold and elevated the central progression of the novel in the entirety.