The Odyssey by Homer - The Ramayana by Valmiki - Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

        The second story we read was the Ramayana by Valmiki.  Rama is characterized throughout the Ramayana as a loyal, dedicated, courageous hero whose actions are influenced by the Indian culture from which he comes.  Rama remains loyal to his father, King Dasa-ratha, in doing whatever he asks of him no matter what the outcome may be.  He is very dedicated to his family and cultures traditions of staying faithful and loyal.  He shows this dedication by testing his wives faithfulness and purity not only once, but twice.  In his culture it is not acceptable for your wife to be un-pure, and he must remain true to his culture.  When he tests his wife, Sita, he does this as a public affair.  This is a very courageous move on his part, to do this to his wife twice.  He is also courageous when he goes into the forest for fourteen years of exile when his father ordered him to.  He had to give up living in riches and comfort to live in the forest.  He does all of this with the love for his father and dedication to him and his culture and society.

        Okonkwo, throughout the novel Things Fall Apart, is characterized as a hero who possesses a tragic flaw, but whose actions are influenced by the Ibo culture from which he comes.  Okonkwo comes from the Ibo culture in which you are rewarded for your hard work and strength by being given titles of different levels.  Okonkwo’s father was a very weak man with no titles, in their culture a man with no titles is called a women and belittled.  Throughout Okonkwo’s life he is determined to not be like his father, and be a successful man.  All of his determination may have been the reason for his flaw, he had a fear of being seen as weak.  This made him go overboard with everyday things like the way he treated his family, and the way he went about his work.  He really did care about his family members and wanted to show them his affection, but his fear of being thought of as weak kept him from showing any emotions.  His toughness kept the other men in the village respecting him, and the older men really appreciated that they still had some youth working hard to keep their farms running.  His fear of failing was made even bigger because of the treatment that a man would receive if he didn’t achieve a title.  This made him to uptight and violent, he ruled his hand with a heavy hand and expected to much of his wife and children.  When he was banished from his village for seven years, he gained even more determination to succeed when he returned.  However, things didn’t go as he would have liked.  European white men had started to invade their villages and try to convert them to Christianity.  He was very upset about this, and wanted to fight back.   When he tried to fight back he did this with violence and ended up killing someone.  He would have been embarrassed by this and would have thought he failed if the white men would have destroyed him, so he hung himself.   This may not have happened if he hadn’t been as critical of an unsuccessful man.

        The characterization of Odysseus, Rama, and Okonkwo proves that these three heroes share a number of similarities, but are also made distinct by the influences of their respective cultures.  Odysseus is forced to go off to the Trojan War, and is made stronger on his tough journey home. He is seen as a hero to his society, because he is a clever thinker and is able to get his crew out of bad situations.  Rama is influenced by his Indian culture in which he tries very hard to stay dedicated and loyal to his father. Okonkwo’s culture influenced him greatly throughout the novel Things Fall Apart, he was so afraid of being seen as weak that he based his entire life around it.  All three of these heroes came from different cultures and all had very different lifestyles, this shows how growing up with a certain culture can shape your whole life.

Hero Essay