Portraying a Tragic Hero in Ben Okri’s Flowers and Shadows: The Case of Jonan Okwe
Portraying a Tragic Hero in Ben Okri’s Flowers and Shadows: The Case of Jonan Okwe

Summary/Abstract: This essay analyses the tragic downfall of the main protagonist, Jonan Okwe, as portrayed in Ben Okri’s Flowers and Shadows. Though ruthless and pitiless, he is obsessed with his social status: hence, his unremitting struggle to gain power and wealth by all means. Driven also by his fear of poverty and humiliation, and in order to achieve his aim, that is to climb the social ladder (with its privileges), he commits many mistakes and crimes that inexorably lead to his tragic end. In fact, Jonan Okwe’s success contains in itself the seed of his downfall in the sense that his wealth is built on various machinations and treacheries. But when misfortune comes his way, he is not the only one that suffers. His family, especially his son and wife, suffers from the reversal of the situation. Do the children pay for the sins of their father?

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