What is a tragedy? A tragedy has to have a tragic hero who suffers a downfall and has a tragic resolution. In Things Fall Apart, the tragedy is that Okonkwo, the tragic hero, suffers a downfall and ends up killing himself. Even though his downfall could have been averted, the white missionaries are the main cause of Okonkwo's tragedy.

At first everything was fine. Umuofia had its own culture and its own beliefs. Okonkwo was one of the strongest men of Umuofia. Okonkwo was masculine, industrious, respected, and wealthy. He didn't want to be like his father, in other words, a failure. He considered his father a failure because he was very lazy, ignominious, and poor. Okonkwo believed that every man should have power and that they shouldn't show any affection to others otherwise they would have been called women.

The tragedy begins when Okonkwo's gun explodes and...