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Explain the gender relations in Things Fall Apart
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Life is never easy; it often takes unexpected turns, where one finds himself in a situation that was unimaginable before. This is what happens to Okonkwo in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Okonkwo was one of the great clansmen in the village of Iguedo, where he proved himself to be a prominent contributor as a farmer and warrior to the clan, unlike his father, who was considered a failure in terms of masculinity. Due to an unfortunate accident, in which Okonkwo’s gun fires and kills a young man, Okonkwo is exiled to his motherland, loosing not only his farm and compound, but also the prestige that he has built for himself over the years, which strengthened his own belief in his masculinity. Okonkwo views his exile as a tragedy, yet he is welcomed and accepted by his uncle, who provides a new beginning for him and his family. However, this is mostly unappreciated by Okonkwo, who continues to consider himself as part of the Iguedo clan and focuses on his return, where he is going to build himself an even greater life than before.
Exiles are often considered to be punishments after a serio...
In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Obierika and Okeke bring a peace to the community and themsel and religious lives around them, while Okonkwo and Enoch strike fear and confusion into the communities around them. Okeke and Obierika are from two different worlds but their balanced character makes them similar to one another. Okeke is of Igbo descent but has begun to work as a translator for the Christians.
“Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way. You become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, and brave by performing brave actions.” -Aristotle.
In the novel Things Fall Apart by Achebe, Okonkwo is a man who is strict about his masculinity and masculine tradition. His consistency is impressive but his struggles makes his fight unyielding. Okonkwo’s masculinity is significant for him not be like his father, throughout his life he works hard to not be like Unoka. Okonkwo is a stubborn man and he constantly fights to be masculine and does not like much get in his way. This all sums up to his consequences of being a strict masculine man. In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the way Okonkwo views masculinity through the novel is a consisted fight and he goes through a journey of sticking to only masculinity but has a downfall because of it.
Whenever one’s religion is criticized, one instinctively become defensive, and attempts to defend their religion to the best of their ability. There are consequences, however, when one attempts to define others religions as “right” or “wrong”. Chinua Achebe, in his book Things Fall Apart, juxtaposes Christianity and the Igbo Religion to demonstrate how religion should not be judged as “right” or “wrong” because of the problems created when they are. Many instances occur in Things Fall Apart where the belief that one's religion is “right” or “correct” and other religions are “wrong” or “in-correct” creates problems for the people of the Igbo tribe, as well as the missionaries.
“He who will hold another down in the mud must stay in the mud to keep him down.” This quote by Chinua Achebe describes the self-inflictions when a person purposely goes after another. This goes hand-in-hand with the Nigerian author’s magnum opus, Things Fall Apart. For the duration of the book, Achebe uses subtle events to create amplifying changes. He uses Okonkwo’s relationship with others, his learning about the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves. Achebe also uses Okonkwo’s fear of change for the Ibo regarding to the missionaries and their spread of Christianity through the region. Creating universal and relatable characters, Chinua Achebe warns people of rash actions and their effects over time.
The novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is about the tragic fall of a protagonist, Okonkwo, who is a powerful man throughout the Ibo village. What is interesting about this novel is the fact that Achebe chose Okonkwo to be his hero. This topic is significant because even though Okonkwo was a very ambitious man he was also a brutal man. Achebe chose Okonkwo as his hero because Okonkwo didn’t show weakness or emotion but showed masculinity and strength over others.
Okonkwo’s true nature was clearly only reflected around those he closest to him, many times only under intimate or special circumstances. As his true masculinity, his unrealised and under expressed fondness for those he loved, and his overly expressed fiery temper, was shown to the greatest extent only around those closest to him. This deeply developed the character, and heightened the sense of Okonkwo being a tragic hero in Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart.
In the novel, Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo’s desire to become manly overshadows his good qualities, like the desire for manliness in US society and its effect on the men and their families. The main character, Okonkwo, epitomizes manliness on a daily basis and its negative effects are displayed using his behavior. The consequences of manly actions are shown increasingly as the story continues. At the start, the narrator reflects back on Okonkwo’s rise to power and the roots of his decisions. The narrator explains that Unoka, Okonkwo’s father, is the root of Okonkwo’s inhumane personality.
In the novel, Things Fall Apart, written by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo is a sympathetic and unsympathetic character in regards to his family relationships with his adopted son, Ikemefuna, his daughter, Ezima, and his father, Unoka, as a result of he appears to genuinely care about his family; but, the pride within himself prevents his expression of such pride and concern openly. The protagonist, Okonkwo demonstrates his sympathetic character solely to himself, personally, and infrequently not in the eyes of others. During the plotting of Ilemefuna’s death, Okonkwo was hesitant to make the boy aware of his fate and also hesitant to take part in his death. “‘I cannot understand why you refused to come with us to kill that boy,’ he asked Obierika” Okonkwo was aware that the adopted boy from an opposing tribe thought of Okonkwo, not only as an authority figure and high-ranking tribal member/warrior, but also as a father—his father. Until the death of Ikemefuna, Okonkwo continued to show Ikemefuna kindness due to feeling that “his son’s development was due to Ikemefuna.”
A single story is all it takes to change someone. The author ,Chinua Achebe, challenges the idea of a single story in his novel," Things fall apart." In this story, it explores collonialism from a different view. It follows the main character Okonkwo, a stong masculin figure in his village, and his fall from fame. From one bad omen to another, cristianity closes in on the small village of umuofia. In Achebe's novel, "Things fall Apart," He shows how collonialism can cause conflict between relationships through the character Oknokwo and his experiances.
The white man considered Africans to be primitive savages. They were seen as inferior, second-class citizens. Chinua Achebe was an African novelist who sought to give the African people a voice. Achebe gave a prospective of African culture that had been missing from the literature. The white man primarily composed works of literature, therefore there was a skewed representation of African culture. Achebe conveyed a greater understanding of African culture through his first novel Things Fall Apart. This analysis will examine Okonkwo’s power and lack of freedom through his wealth, property, and actions.
The character of Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart was driven by fear, a fear of change and losing his self-worth. He needed the village of Umuofia, his home, to remain untouched by time and progress because its system and structure were the measures by which he assigned worth and meaning in his own life. Okonkwo required this external order because of his childhood and a strained relationship with his father, which was also the root of his fears and subsequent drive for success. When the structure of Umuofia changed, as happens in society, Okonkwo was unable to adapt his methods of self-evaluation and ways of functioning in the world; the life he was determined to live could not survive a new environment and collapsed around him.
The novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe displays a strong significance based solely on Nigerian culture and how it slowly evolved due to European immigrants. Both culture and gender play a huge role in the way of life in the Ibo village. As it was a common custom in the past, the male was dominant in the family. Achebe tells of an Igbo tribesman, Okonkwo, and his prosperous life in the village of Umuofia. Being prized of personal achievements such as defeating Amalinze the Cat, Okonkwo is expected to accomplish much more in his lifetime, but will his actions turn out to ruin his reputation and furthermore? Throughout the novel, Okonkwo displays various actions in response to the European invasion of his culture
Okonkwo, in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, was faced with many hardships in his life. When growing up he had to deal with a lazy father, then when he was older he had to kill a boy that called him father, and he also accidentally killed a young boy from his village. These events played a very tragic role in Okonkwos life.
In Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo is an extremely complex character who experiences a variety of emotions which he has a difficult time controlling. He experiences a never ending battle of psychosomatic symptoms, starting with his obsession over the conflict of the past with his father, Unoka. Okonkwo portrays himself as a heroic, strong warrior, only to mask the feelings of intense anger, fear, and selfishness that provokes him, which inevitably leads him down the same path as his father. He feels a strong hatred towards his father because he believes that his father had no masculine qualities, he owed everyone money, and owned no titles. Achebe states: