TRAGIC HERO

We are all very familiar with the Achebe's choice of selecting a protagonist an anti-hero, but we are not very familiar with why Achebe had done this and what effects this has on us as readers in terms of its cultural context. 

To understand this in a deeper level and more easily, let's consider what would have happened if Achebe characterized Okonkwo as an antithesis of his original personality. If Okonkow was of benign and friendly nature, he would have been identical to other members in his clan, very obedient and compliant to changes. Then, Achebe would have not been able to explicitly unravel the destruction and disorder the 'Westerns' have brought, but would have highlighted the upside they have brought such as what Achebe describes in his Interview: 'A more efficient form of life'. However, by delineating Okonkwo as rather a very hostile, easily outraged, and resistant to what he dislikes, Achebe is able to achieve what a benign and gentle Okonkwo would not have. That is, emphasizing the abrupt obliteration that has been put upon the people, the way they think, governmental system, and root of their culture. 

To go into the possible reason why Achebe employed the tragic hero archetype on a more profound level, it is crucial to peruse the characteristics of a tragic hero. A common tragic hero has a hamartia, a tragic flaw or flaws, and in case of Achebe it is inability to be in harmony with his surroundings. Next, tragic heroes undergo perepeteia, a turning point of their fortune and fate, and a course of perepeteia reveals a tragic hero's hamartia. Likewise, when Okonkwo finds out that his land, Umofia, is a city of Christianity followers-this scene being the parapeteia-he is unable to control his anger and be in harmony with the new custom of his village-his inability to control emotion and be in harmony being the hamartias. However, near the end of the story, Achebe deliberately evokes pity and shame for Okonkwo among the audience by illustrating a scene where a number of white officers deride Okonkwo after his lamentable death . If Okonkwo was protagonist who hasn't gone through peripeteia, without hamartias and of good nature, Achebe wouldn't have been able to employ this scene because there would be no need for the white officers to pillory Okonkwo's death.