Richard Nixon and history/life represents an Aristoteliandefinition of a tragic hero. Through his life he under goes a somewhat noblebirth, has a rise to power/success, then has a tragic flaw bringing him to anextreme low and finally a reversal offortune Let me start off by talking about where it all started.Richard Nixon’s parents were under the Quaker religion and were simple honestfarmers. This is why I say that Nixon had somewhat of a noble birth. Nixon’sfamily were good people because of their religion, Nixon was also an excellentstudent throughout high school and was invited into college like Harvard andYale, but decided to stay close to home at Whittier college.Nixon ran for his first political spot in 1938, and wasaccepted as the republican leader of California.
In 1968 he ran for hispresidency and won against Hubert Humphrey, Nixon based his campaign on theVietnam War which at that time had been going since 1957. As the next electionapproached Nixon became insecure about his chances of winning. As a result ofthis insecurity, Nixon got members of the committee to reelect the president tobreak into the democratic national party headquarters, which was located at theWatergate hotel, to locate campaign strategies. After the members were caughtand questioned Nixon was eventually tracked back too.This began the tragic flaw of the Richard Nixon’s tragic hero archetype, after being tracked back from theWatergate scandal Nixon was going to be indefinitely impeached, so to avoidthis from happening he decided to tender his resignation. The government lookedfurther into the scandal and discovered tapes which also put out any sign ofinnocence. This is the led to Nixon living out the rest of his years playinggolf at a distant course while also writing books about the time of which whenhe was in the presidency.
Richard Nixon’s story perfectly represents the storyof an Aristotelian tragic hero. He lives through a noble birth, a rise topower, a tragic flaw and finally the living out of his life including theimpact of his tragic flaw on the public.
