Things Fall Apart, Chapter Fourteen, Fifteen, and Sixteen

Okonkwo becomes powerless in many ways at the start of Part Two. He has committed the female ochu and is exiled from his fatherland to his motherland. For a man of the Ibo tribe like Okonkwo, this is a true slap in the face and cause for suffering. He loses the material possessions and the titles he worked so hard to obtain. Loss becomes even more real for this tragic hero when he loses his firstborn son, the one who is supposed to step up and follow in his father’s footsteps. Even worse, he loses him to the white men who have invaded with their ideas that the Ibo must abandon their gods and ancestral spirits for one god. Some may say that what the British bring to the Ibo is for the betterment of their lives. Others would argue that their society was functional and civilized without the outside influence. The true answer to that question rests in the eyes of the beholder.

The suffering of a tragic hero does not have to be physical suffering. No one can argue that Okonkwo experiences suffering. It may not be the suffering of Oedipus, but it is deeply-felt nonetheless. In Okonkwo’s eyes, he has experienced loss beyond understanding at this point. Simply suffering causes him to suffer more. Only women suffer and pout, yet Okonkwo had to be put in his place by his uncle for just such behavior.