“Tragedy arouses not only pity but also fear…” Things Fall Apart does not tell you what “happened”, but shows you what will happen. In Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe dramatizes what could happen and what was happening. The district commissioner suggested a book title at the end of the book. I think the main title of the book was to suggest what might happen. »…The pacification of the tribes of the lower Niger. » A tragedy has a protagonist, the protagonist is someone who is famous or prosperous, and whose fortune changes from good to bad or vice versa. The driving force or protagonist of Things Fall Apart is undoubtedly Okonkwo. Okonkwo was a prominent member of the Umuofia clan. He had three wives and eight children. Okonkwo experienced many changes of fortune during Things Fall Apart. He started out sharecropping for Nwakibie. Sharecropping is a system of agriculture in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in exchange for a share of the crop produced on the land. From there he acquired his own farm. Just when he thought he could never fall, Okonkwo had a cruel twist of fate. His gun went off and killed Ezeudu's son. Okonkwo was then banned for seven years, and from there everything started to fall apart. Both Things Fall Apart and Okonkwo evoke many emotions; fear, pity, anguish, compassion and hope. There is a lot of compassion when his own son opposed him and there is hope that Ibo culture will remain intact even if you know the outcome of the white man's contact with Ibo culture. According to Aristotle, tragedies use many metaphors. Things Fall Apart contains metaphors accompanied by many proverbs from the Igbo culture. “…Okonkwo was as slippery as a fish in water.”(1). In Things Fall... middle of paper ... uh, achieving the level of success he wanted. »…Clearly, his personal god or chi was not made for great things. A man could not rise beyond the destiny of his chi” (121). His elders said “if a man said yes, his chi asserted itself”. Okonkwo said yes, but despite his elders' affirmation, his chi said no. His life was a constant build and then collapse. He moved away from his father's mistakes and built a successful family and resort. This success fell and he was exiled for seven years. He rebuilt his farm in his mother's village, Mbanta. This success was overshadowed by the arrival of the white man and the change of Nwoye's name to Isaac and what that symbolized. Everything really fell apart when Okonkwo finally committed suicide. “The lizard would like to stand up, but his tail won't allow him to do so. » - (Ibo Proverb) Works Cited “Things fall apart” Chinua Achebe