Okonkwo, Tragic Hero

In the novel "Things Fall Apart", the author Chinua Achebe characterises the protagonist Okonkwo as the tragic hero archetype. A tragic hero in the classical sense embodies a hero who "is noble in nature, has a tragic flaw and discovers his fate by his own actions". This is evident throughout the story and there are multiple reasons as to why Chinua Achebe chose to go with this theme.

The portrayal of the tragic hero archetype draws many parallels to the Igbo culture and the progression the story takes. For one, how the story is divided is also how Okonkwo's tale is divided. By this it is meant that the first part of the book establishes Okonkwo and the Igbo culture. The second part is when there is a turning point and Okonkwo is faced with serious trouble as he is exiled and the colonisers begin to spread across Igboland breaking down that culture. The third and last section of the book ventures through the end of Okonkwo as he kills the messenger and the broken Igbo culture does not support him, leading to his demise and also the end of the old Igbo culture. 

However, this is not the only point that can be made. The fact this this man not only impersonates, but also opposes the classical Igbo traditions is also an important factor as to why Achebe chose to characterise him the way he is. In many ways, he is the perfect Igbo man who owns a big farm, has a family, is wealthy and has titles to carry in honour. Nonetheless, his impatience and fear of failure are also his greatest enemy. The fact that he is flawed in this sense keeps the reader hooked onto this character and almost feel pity for him, as all he fights for diminishes in an instant and all of his culture and what he stood for deserts him to end the old ways, and open up to a westernised "new Igboland".

The Royal Colonial Institute Speech

Dear members, dear attendees, dear friends.

Today is a special day, a celebrated day of the year. Today is our annual dinner of the Royal Colonial Institute, of which I am beyond grateful and thankful to be a part of. We celebrate our achievements which we have accumulated throughout this year, and I am here to address a rather tendentious topic. We have colonies all over the world which have brought us where we are today. Nonetheless, there is one colony at hand which I would be honoured to discuss with you on this day.

Let me indulge you on a journey down to North-Western Africa. Just south of the Sahara, we have - yet another - colony. The Igbo culture. Over recent time, I have been informed discomfort with the existing colonialists present in Igboland. These reports did not settle, therefore I decided for myself to personally witness this at hand and draw conclusions from there. The reports did not disappoint.

I have made it my mission to get to know these people, to understand them. And so I did. The Igbo people were few of the kindest, open and accepting people I have ever come across in my lifetime. Yet to see them being mistreated to this extent makes my heart bleed.

How would you feel if - despite your acceptance of a new culture - had your own torn from you? They love their culture, and this intricate culture means everything to them. What do we do? We strip this from them, not even taking into consideration any possible harm we are causing them.

There is one other flaw we have. May I ask who of you knows how many cultures the Igbo consists of? I bet none of you know. In fact, I count on it. The culture consists of many many villages and is one of the most diverse cultures around the world. Each village has their own traditions and ways of living. We're classifying them as one Nigeria. Is thar morally correct in your opinion? Is this just?

I don't expect you to discuss this with me, I do however expect you to take this to heart. Not just to heart, but to think about this too. I ask you to do something about it. They embrace Christianity without a problem, they want to implement ideas, so why forcefully mistreat them to do what we want, instead of helping them fuse our cultures together as one?

Achebe Interview

For the discussion during Wednesday's class, an important take away was mostly the depiction of coloured people in literature of the western societies. To explain this, Achebe describes how africans were used in western literature and were described as savages and weren't given human properties such as a caring personality or being kind. Instead, they were uncaring animals nearly who were not ever given proper character and were mostly antagonised by the likes of Joseph Conrad amongst others.

A general idea the group used as a discussion point was the usage of English as a form of resistance, like discussed previously in Topic 3, Language, Power and Resistance. We had questions such as "Why do you think African's couldn't use English as a form of resistance in literature prior to the midst of the 20th century?". We used arguments to point out the possibility of ever publishing only arising at that point in time and the fact that independencies occurred around that time. In relation to this general idea, we also, again, discussed the idea that English can be used as a form of resistance. One argument for this was that if the suppressed are able to communicate and speak the language of the suppressor, then there is nothing for the suppressors to hold them above the suppressed, nothing that makes them more powerful in a non-violent way. I believe these ideas are quite interesting due to the fact that something as simple and non-physical such as language can have such a massive effect on colonisers and their usage of power.