Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

The definition of hero is a man admired for his achievements andqualities, especially one displaying great courage. The presence of a hero has been around in nearly every novel of some nature. Throughout the book, Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe presentsmany aspects of how the tragic hero, Okonkwo, portrays the author's own characterization of a tragic hero. Okonkwo is a tragic hero in the typical sense: although he is a superior character, his tragic flaw, the equation of manliness with rashness, anger,violence, and arrogance brings about his own destruction.
Okonkwo, the main protagonist of the novel, expresses many stereotypical personality traits of a hero. The narrator states, "At an early age he had achieved fame as the greatest wrestler in all of the land."(27). In the village Umuofia, where he lived as well as the other tribal villages, this title was held with great esteem. Gaining this title was a huge indicator of ones manliness. Another characteristic of being manly is how well one performs in war. "He was not afraid of war. He was a man of action, a man of war."("). Early in Okonkwo's life, he had shown incredible proficiency in two inter-tribal wars. War is where generally a young man like Okonkwo
"Okonkwo ruled his household with a heavy hand. His wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper, and so did his little children."(13). He had not gained anything from his father. Not so much as a barn or even a yam. Okonkwo despised his father for everything he did and did not do. So, when he got a hint of any trait of his father in his family, especially his oldest son Nwoye, he would beat his son, "Okonkwo's first son, Nwoye, was then twelve years old but already causing his father great anxiety for his insipient laziness. At any rate, that was how it looked to his father, and sought to correct him by constant nagging and