Tragic Hero

In many ways, Things Fall Apart is considered a tragedy. Why would Achebe, taking into account the cultural context, choose to characterize Okonkwo using the tragic hero archetype?

Achebe chooses to characterize Okonkwo as a tragic hero for several reasons. However, according to me, the primary reason Achebe has chosen the tragic hero archetype for Okonkwo is to depict the deterioration of the Ibo culture, only to give birth to the Western One. 

At the beginning of the story, we witness Okonkwo in his golden days, with Iboland being in a state of stability and order. As in the historical context, this must have been some time before 1861 as Iboland was free from British rule at this time. As the story progresses as does time, we witness the metamorphization of Iboland with the creation of Churches, Missionaries and many newly found converts.  However, Okonkwo isn't there to see this due to his hamartia moment of killing a young boy and getting exiled from Umofia.

Moreover, just like any tragic hero, Okonkwo has a tragic flaw, which is his stubbornness to change and his hypermasculine ways. These characteristics are in fact opposite to those found in a typical Ibo citizen, since the Ibo people are found to be very open and accepting of change. The Ibo people believe that never one correct way or answer to something, as there will always be another way to look at the matter or even answer it. This belief in duality is reflected, in Things Fall Apart with the Christians being allowed to build a Church and the many religious Ibo people they managed to convert, with the best example being Nwoye himself. 

However, Okonkwo, on the other hand, is stubborn in his ways and isn't just rigid to change but opposes and despises anyone who deviates from his ideologies. At the end of the novel, Okonkwo decided to behead the messenger, and his fellow more accepting citizens decide not to react in such a manner. Thus, Achebe could be aiming to insinuate that a single-minded focus isn't the correct approach in life.

This is just one interpretation, however, another viewpoint would be to look at Okonkwo as a victim of the Colonial Empire.

In the beginning of the novel - pre-colonial times - Okonkwo is seen to be a successful man, flourishing and reaping the rewards for hard work. He is seen to be living in a peaceful society, with no conflicts and leading a happy life. However, after the Missionaries appear Okonkwo's life rapidly deteriorates with his son deserting him for the "new faith" of Christianity. A man, who once had everything is seen to be reduced to nothing at the end of the novel with the epitome of the story being that the Britisher were the ones who got to decided Okonkwo's penalty for killing the messenger. This transformation of power was nicely summarized by Obrieka who said: "this was one of the most powerful and well-respected men in Umofia, now look what you have done to him". This tragic hero choice ties in with the Cultural context at this time since most of the tribal Igbo people had either converted to Christianity or were being punished for not doing so. The Igbo people had completely submitted to a colonial power and Okonkwo's tragic hero characterization provides the perfect reflection of what a traditional Igbo tribesman must have dealt with at that time.

Dear Royal Colonial Institute

Dear Royal Colonial Institute,

The atmosphere in the room that I am sensing seems to be one of distraught and dismay from our recent dilution in ownership of our colonies. Whilst this may seem problematic and troublesome from the surface, I beg to differ. According to me anyone who feels in this manner should be cuffed and sent to prison for direct interference with this great countries laws. Our country deems it unconstitutional to infringe the rights and freedoms of the less fortunate, those who can not defend themselves - but this is what we continue to do in the Lower Niger in Iboland. 

Firstly, dear institute our treatment of these people is beyond acceptable. Notice the usage of the term "people". Dear Institute how long will we continue to plunder these people in order to salvage a few more pounds. From what I have heard the District Commissioners are being bribed by the fortunate few converts in Iboland and the others who decide to follow their religion are being whipped and their daughters and wives even being raped. Dear Institute, our government has provided immunity for those who decide to follow our religion of Christianity, but those Ibo people who don't are treated with utter disrespect. What happened to our all-encompassing policies. Even those locals who we have hired as our interpreters/messengers (The Kotma) and taught English to are using this power to fraud their own. 

However, dear institute that argument is only focused on our treatment of the Ibo people. Now, I will proceed to expose our flawed reasoning in the colonization of the people of the Lower Niger. My fellow man Chamberlain had argued that we should continue our colonization on the moral grounds that we are bringing civilization to the Iboland. However, dear institution these Ibo people have an abundance of civilizations. They have mastered the iron sculpting and make spears, hatchets, swords and etc. of a much higher quality than us. They know how to harness wine from trees and their agricultural sense is far superior to ours. 

However, their self-sufficiency doesn't end there. The so-called government and order we are trying to bring about in Iboland is already present there and has been so for almost 5 centuries. The Ibo have an interesting form of governance which is a morphed form of democracy meaning, that their people have more of a voice in matters of the state than do ours. The Ibo society works on the basis of titles and thus everyone is motivated to work hard, yielding a society with a motive. Those who don't uphold any titles in the Ibo society are looked down upon and the society is self-driven and prosperous in their own ways. So when Chamberlain makes claims of bettering the Igbo society, he is simply justifying the ruthless plundering by us Britishers on an innocent Igbo society.

Thus, I have only one question to ask you dear institute

Why try to fix something which isn't broken?

Cultural Context "Things Fall Apart"

1) What was the most meaningful takeaway from today’s discussion relating to the cultural or literary context of Achebe’s work?

According to me, there were several meaningful takeaways from today's discussion relating to the cultural or literary context of Achebe's "Things Fall Apart". However, if I was to chose the most meaningful one it would have to be the fact that Achebe wrote his novel to produce the alternate story for what happened in the European colonization of Nigeria. At the time, which Achebe was writing his novel (1900's) all the books that were being published were from the European point of view, thus suppressing the African story. This led to the fact that a single story was being published and the readers of the books were solely influenced by this content since it was the only literary work available dwelling on the topic of the colonization. The single story prevailing at that time was the fact that the Europeans brought Civilization & order to the Africans, who were so-called "savages". This dehumanized portrayal of the Africans by the European authors served as their justification for embodying slavery. Not only this, but the stories painted by the European authors showed the European colonizers almost doing a favor to the Africans by taking control of them since they brought civilization to them. However, this was the only "untrue" single story available and prevalent at that time. Achebe provided the other story narrated with the African voice. This narration depicted the Africans as a society which already had perfectly harmonic social structure and rich cultural diversity, which was in fact destroyed by the Europeans. Now, instead of seeing the Africans as a mentally incompetent "inhumane" species, the world witnessed a society of clever and hard working traders who had their lives compromised by the Europeans. Thus, by publishing an alternate side to the ongoings of colonization in the context of the 1900's (where the European voice was prevalent), Achebe's publishment of Things Fall Apart at this time had a rebellious and refreshing nature attached to it since, the retaliation and the voice of the victims of colonization was unheard of.

2) Select a specific quote from the interview or a general idea from the discussion and write a brief reflection.

A general idea which was prevalent throughout the interview was the idea of a single story. This was seen several times when Achebe talked about the over cosumption of the "American Culture", Nigerian Media Coverage and even the Literature published in the 1900's about colonization. A single story referes to a one sided or bias account, which doesn't take the other sides' feelings or emotions into context. Throughout the interview Achebe has suggested that when a single story is prevalent this is very dangerous and harmful for society since they are completely misled by the side supplying the propoganda. According to Achebe, single stories are generally produced by "those who win" and "those who lose are forgotten". This means that those who are politically powerful can mould the stories in their way to portray themselves as rightoues and associate themselves with postive traits even if these aren't true because the other less powerful political countries don't have the voice to testify against them. Sometimes news corporations only portray the negative aspects of countries with a single story of negativity since it sells better, and thus leave the other positive story of the country out. For the international viewer this can be very harmful since they will form thier assumptions on that country based on the single story supplied by the news corporations. This is evident in Nigerian news media's constant portrayal of Nigeria as a country ridden with poverty, sadness and desperation, and neglection of Nigeria's successful business's. The idea of single stories can also be connected to the colonial literature published in the 1900's in which the European authors depicted the African people as "savages", with no "mental competency" and "civilization". When this literature was consumed by the readers worldwide they would have created thier assumptions on the African population based on the depictions seen in the books written by the European authors without directly interacting with the Africans or listening to their side of the story.

Thus, in conclusion it can be observed that single stories are highly dangerous whenever deployed since the sole presence of just one story fails to display the emotions, thoughts and feelings of the other side, creating an incomplete and even incorrect image in the viewer's mind.