Okonkwo as Tragic Hero - Research Paper Example

Okonkwo as Tragic Hero The Western impression of Africa has been mostly created by the novelists and travel writers who traveled there and brought home their own interpretations of what they saw. It has only been in the past fifty years or so that novels published by people native to Africa have had the chance to tell the stories they understand on a much more intimate level. This is not necessarily all the fault of Western oppression because, until Dr. David Livingstone and Sir Henry Morton Stanley explored the continent in the mid-1800s, no white man had ever reached Africa's interior. This made it easy for the West to assign the nickname "The Dark Continent" to Africa, referring not only to its unknown geography but also to its people and their unknown social and cultural structures. Although Livingstone and Stanley's explorations contributed very little to deepen the Western understanding of the people or the land, they did encourage plenty of speculation and conjecture. It was these made-up ideas that became the foundation of several of the misunderstandings the West has held about Africa since then. Because of the one-sided discussion, Africa emerged as a land of possibility for Western enrichment through the unfettered exploitation of its resources. The West thinks of African people as mostly child-like, capable only of primitive understandings, and only slightly more than bestial in their natural environment. It took several years before native writers, such as Chinua Achebe were able to align Africa’s story with the West in the presentation of Okonkwo as a tragic hero in his story Things Fall Apart (1959). The tragic hero is a frequent character in numerous plays and dramas of the ancient Greeks into the modern day. The character type was present even before Aristotle's time, but it was Aristotle who codified the major elements that must be present for a character to be considered a tragic hero although these rules have changed some in the millennia since they were first described. In Aristotle's time, the tragic hero status could only be applied to characters with real potential for tremendous greatness. This meant people who were destined to be kings and princes or others who had some kind of noble claim. According to Zarro, “the tragic effect will be stronger if the hero is ‘better than we are’, in that he is of higher than ordinary moral worth. Such a man is shown as suffering a change in fortune from happiness to misery because of a mistaken act, to which he is led by his hamartia (his ‘effort of judgment’) or, as it is often literally translated, his tragic flaw.” In spite of this nobility, the tragic hero is destined to fail as a result of some tragic flaw inherent in their nature. This tragic flaw is often associated in some way with their greatest strength and is therefore an aspect of their character that the individual becomes inordinately proud to exercise (Aristotle). As society has progressed, though, and new structures emerged in which wealthy businessmen took the place of kings and princes, the focus of the tragic hero has been less concerned with his noble status than it is with his progression through a three-fold process. According to Vest, heroism today, even tragic heroism, refers more to the actions of the character who embodies many of our ideals regarding what is good and noble in human nature than it is concerned with the birth or earned social status of the character himself. Although Okonkwo is not born a tribal chief, he earns his status as a tribal elder and this modern change in tragic hero definitions allows even the West to recognize his status. Before proving Okonkwo's actions qualify him as a tragic hero, it is necessary to understand what constitutes the progression of a tragic hero. The process of the tragic hero begins when the character commits some act in the excess of their pride that inevitably leads to their downfall (Aristotle). This is the first stage of the tragic cycle. The second stage occurs when the character finally admits that the disaster occurring around them is the result of their own conscious actions and prideful nature. In many cases, this second stage comes at nearly the end of their story, typically around the climax scene. The third stage of the tragic hero's progression enables the tragic hero to experience a moment of enlightenment and redemption, but often not a return to the high status of their former life (Aristotle). Examining this process, it is pretty clear that the status of nobility is not actually an important element in the official equation. This is because anyone can experience a downfall as the result of their own mistakes, admit where they were wrong and experience enlightenment as a result. What makes the story of the tragic hero interesting, though, is the element of shock. This seems to be an important contributing moment to the tragic hero's ability to wake up to his own flaws and his own hand in causing his downfall. The tragic hero must not have necessarily expected the outcome to have occurred, and neither can the audience (Zarro). In a world where most people clung to a degree of faith in their nobility, there was a much greater tendency for them to attribute their social and political leaders with an ability to adhering to a higher standard of human behavior. For this reason, it was more shocking to the audience to have one of these leaders tumble from his nobility, particularly as a result of his own actions (Bryant 96). In more modern times, the greater educated and more cynical public has a general tendency to expect their leaders to fall and the discovery that it was as a result of personal characteristics is equally expected. This perhaps helped open the door for new tragic heroes coming from other lands, such as Okonkwo. In his novel, Achebe presents characters whose basic humanity simply cannot be denied. Okonkwo emerges as a very complex individual who possesses numerous strengths and faults. He is a strong man determined to overcome the failures of his childhood. Okonkwo “did everything to avoid the path of his father. He understood the communal responsibilities and expectations and internalized the principles of acquiring titles, working hard, and being strong” (Ikuenobe 123). He works hard to overcome the disgrace of his father, Unoka, who was not much of a farmer of yams - the tribal business - but who loved to play music and socialize with his friends. Had he lived in a more urban setting, it is likely he would have been able to support his family with his music, but in the rural society where he lived, success was only measured by the man's ability to grow yams. For this reason, Okonkwo works very hard to make himself the kind of success story his father never was. He eventually earns his way into being a clansman, warrior, farmer and family provider with three wives and nine children. His position within the tribe is made clear in his selection as one of the primary participants in the village's most important celebrations to recognize and remember the ancestors. For the ceremony, a number of the clan leaders are picked to dress up in raffia costumes that represent the tribal gods and become vessels through which the gods were thought to join the tribe for the day. As the figure of Evil Forest is described, Achebe comments, “Okonkwo’s wives, and perhaps other women as well, might have noticed that the second egwugwu had the springy walk of Okonkwo … But if they thought of these things, they kept them within themselves. The egwugwu with the springy walk was one of the dead fathers of the clan” (Achebe 89-90). To be selected for this role was a great honor among the men and it was therefore reserved only for the most respected of them. As a result, Okonkwo's participation in the ritual symbolizes that he was successful in overcoming his father's shame and had become the equivalent of nobility within the African tribal system. At the same time, these character traits of strength, discipline and adherence to tradition that enabled Okonkwo to rise so high above his father's station would lead to his tragic fall. This is completely in keeping with the tragic hero sequence. Although Okonkwo has been very successful within his tribal system, he also rigidly adheres to the customs and traditions of the tribe. It was this rigid nature that enabled him to rise so high so quickly. However, the times were changing and white missionaries were making their way into the interior of Africa and challenging their belief systems. This is found in the story of Ikemefuna, the child ransom required by the village of Umuofia to the nearby village of Mbaino in exchange for the murder of one of Umuofia's daughters. It is easy for Okonkwo to support the boy within the boundaries of his family holdings in keeping with tradition. Ikemefuna proves himself to be very willing and able to help the village in any way he can and he brings about positive changes in Okonkwo's household through his easy manner and deep understanding during the three years he lives with the family, eventually starting to call Okonkwo father like the other children. However, the tribal customs also say that a life must be taken for a life and Okonkwo makes no argument about it. “Yes, Umofia has decided to kill him. The Oracle of the hills and caves has pronounced it” (Achebe 57). There is apparently no argument to be made by anyone as they prepare for the false hunting trip on which the boy is to be killed. Ogbuefi Ezeudu simply advises Okonkwo to take no hand in the boy’s death because Ikemefuna calls Okonkwo father and it is against tribal tradition for a father to take the life of his child. Okonkwo is surprised at the decision regarding Ikemefuna and he goes on the trip intending to heed Ogbuefi's recommendation, but when the first blow is not successful, he ends up taking a hand in the killing after all. It is unclear even to Okonkwo whether he does this out of pity for the boy and an attempt to end things quickly or because of his pride as one of the leaders of the tribe trying to show the others how to kill in cold blood when required. As he proves unable to accept the changes taking place in his world, Okonkwo finally comes to realize how his pride and his rigid adherence to tradition has cost him the son he wished he had as well as the son he had. While he was deeply aware of the social norms of his community, Okonkwo was not always able to constraint himself within acceptable bounds, such as when he almost shot his wife during the New Yam Festival. His rigid control caused him to deny so much that occasionally it was able to break its boundaries in these types of scenes and served to turn his family against him. His son completely rejects the old ways in favor of the missionaries' promises, especially following Ikenefuna's murder, and he adopts his father's rigid practices in enforcing Christian values upon his fellow tribesmen. This further removed Okonkwo's chances at human happiness as an older man because he cannot take pleasure in his son's nobility nor can he relax within the traditional adoration and respect of his wives and daughters. As he comes to realize his hand in the development of this state within the village, Okonkwo's emotions again take control of him and he kills one of the white man's messengers in a rage. Realizing he is unfit to live in the changing world around him, realizing his tragic flaw of rigid adherence to custom, Okonkwo is eventually found hanging from a tree. Suicide is one of the most disgraceful deaths known to the Umofia people and is also shunned by Christian doctrine, so Okonkwo's death, rather than launching him into the hallowed halls of the elders and ancestors, instead brings him and his family the same kind of shame he lived his entire life trying to escape. Describing why he sees the story as a tragedy, Moses says, “a traditional hierarchical society based on archaic heroic values is giving way to a more modern and egalitarian society” (cited in Kortenaar 85), yet the story is also a tragedy simply by following the progress of it main character. Okonkwo starts life in disgrace as a result of his father's actions, but this is okay within the modern interpretation of the tragic hero because we no longer expect them to be nobility. However, through hard work and rigid discipline in keeping to the traditions of the tribe, Okonkwo makes nobility of himself, eventually building a wealthy family holding that supports three wives and nine children and can easily take in one more when he is called upon to do so. He is well liked and respected, being asked to take part in some of the village's most important festivities even though he is sometimes given to rages and shows of excessive emotion. Okonkwo considers all of these characteristics with pride and sees no reason to curb them until the day comes when he must be a part of the hunting party intended to kill Ikenefuna, the boy he has cared for for the past three years. As he takes part in the killing, he allows his pride as a tribal leader to overcome his adherence to deeper tribal custom and begins to slip in his stature. When he loses control of his emotions again with the white messenger, he realizes how his strengths have also been his weaknesses and have led him to this place from which he can no longer return. Because he has killed a white man, he will no longer be able to take his place among the tribal leaders as the community is changing and it is even unlikely that he will be able to live peacefully within the family holdings he has built. In desperation, he hangs himself, giving himself the only kind of death that will ensure he and his family become as disgraced by his death as he was by the death of his father. In spite of everything he'd worked for and accomplished, in the end, he died in the same social status that he was born to. Works Cited Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Anchor Books, 1994. Print. “Aristotle.” Critica Links. The University of Hawaii, (1998). Web. June 1, 2011. Bryant, Joseph M. Moral Codes and Social Structure in Ancient Greece: A Sociology of Greek Ethnics from Homer to the Epicureans and Stoics. New York: State University of New York Press, 1996. Print. Ikuenobe, Polycarp. “The Idea of Personhood in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.” Philosophia Africana. 9.2: (August 2006): 117-131. Print. Kortenaar, Neil. “Chinua Achebe and the Question of Modern African Tragedy.” Philosophia Africana. 9.2: (August 2006): 83-100. Print. Vest, Rob. “Shakespearean Tragedy in Othello: The Moor of Venice.” Late Plays of Shakespeare. (2002). Web. June 1, 2011. Zarro, Josephine. “More Terms Defined: Aristotelian Definition of Tragedy.” Gallery of Tragic Heroes in Literature and Life. (July 19, 2001). Teach the Teachers. Web. June 1, 2011. Read More