Compare/contrast essay Things Fall Apart and Oedipus?

Beowulf, Oedipus, or both? Oedipus and Okonkwo are both tragic heroes, in most ways outstanding men, but with tragic flaws that bring about their downfalls. Beowulf, however, is an epic hero, not really tragic. Although he dies at the end of his epic, he dies fighting to protect his people, and there are hints that he knows this will be his last fight. The monsters he fights symbolize the evil in human nature, let loose by unthinking human acts. So in a sense it's the tragic flaws of other people that bring about Beowulf's fall. But consider this: When Beowulf dies, he has been King of the Geats for fifty years. Several years have passed between his fight with Grendel and his becoming King, so he must be about eighty when he dies. Few warriors get to live to that age and then go out in such a blaze of glory, and noble, unselfish glory at that. You might get a good thesis out of the idea that Okonkwo is a warrior like Beowulf but has a tragic flaw like Oedipus.