American culture is mixture of many things. Which makes it comparable to the Igbo culture in the novel Things Fall Apart. In the novel, their culture is very different from ours in America. They have different gender roles, beliefs, and how they live. A huge difference between the cultures is the gender roles. For instance, In the Igbo culture, they practice polygamy which is the practice of having more than one wife or husband.
In America that is not allowed in most cases, we practice monogamy which is the opposite, it is being married to only one person at a time. However, both cultures allow people to choose who they want to marry. Gender roles in homes are different too. In the Igbo culture, women are treated more as property than a person. In American culture, equality is constantly being fought for and we are almost there to full equality. Men in the Igbo culture beat women if they do something wrong and the men are encouraged to do so. This is very different in America, if a man were to hit a women, they would be arrested. The role of men in the Igbo culture is to provide food. Meanwhile, women are given easier tasks as to just serve the men. Work is shared equally in American culture.
…show more content…
In most religions that are in America, we believe there is only one god which differs from the Igbo culture. The Igbo people believed in many gods. Most of which are manifestations of nature and its elements. The way we pray is also different, in American culture, it is normal to go to church or some other religious setting. In the novel, it is mentioned that Okonkwo “[worships] them with sacrifices of kola nut, food and palm-wine, and offered prayers to them on behalf of himself, his three wives and eight children” (2.14). This shows the devotion to the religion of the Igbo people. Okonkwo places food or gifts leaving them for the gods in exchange for the care of his family. Their religion also shows how they
The Igbo are deeply patriarchal and violence is not uncommon. This male-dominance is inherent in the clan's language; the word for a man who ...
Although women are working alongside men in today’s society, they are still looked down upon. Women who are well educated suffer from social stigma. Women are not appreciated for the things they do. Gender roles in Igbo culture share some differences and similarities with cultures around the world. The Igbo people hail from Nigeria, they have a very rich culture and history.
Men are still looked at as the dominant gender and still believed to “own their wives.” According to BBC News, women are still looked at as property and are perceived to be pure and submissive to their parents and husbands. Yes, society has changed in the world to where women are allowed to have “equal right as men,” and women are allowed more freedom. Nonetheless, women in Nigerian society have not had that same change and are now standing up for themselves. Women went from being valued in culture, to being submissive housewives. Men went from being strong warriors who cared for women’s rights, to not caring about women. It was always seen in the Igbo culture that women are supposed to be pure and able to bear multiple children for their husband, but it has taken a bigger turn than expected in their
As with most primitive societies, the Igbo was ruled by a few elite, all of which were male. Those able to obtain power in the village are male,
...fashioned man and his son (Nwoye) reminds him of his father, who he wasn't fond of. Okonkwo is never going to convert because of his traditional beliefs. His son’s converting was a major factor that led to his suicide. Okonkwo would rather die as an Ibo than live to see his culture fall apart.
similarities in which they can relate, but not all cultures are the same. There are many factors that can
“His mother and sister’s worked hard enough, but they grew womens crops, like coco yams, beans and cassava. Yam, the king of crops, was a man’s crop” (Achebe 28). The mother and sister are considered submissive because they were serving their clan. Nearly every aspect of Igbo society is gendered, even crops. Yam, is considered a man’s crop.
“But there was a young lad who had been captivated. His name was Nwoye, Okonkwo’s first son. It was not the mad logic of the Trinity that captivated him. He did not understand it. It was the poetry of the new religion, something felt in the marrow. The hymn about brothers who sat in the darkness and in fear seemed to answer a vague and persistent question that haunted his young soul - the question of the twins crying in the bush and the questions of Ikemefuna who was killed. He felt a relief within as the hymn poured into his parched soul. The words panting earth. Nwoye’s callow mind was greatly puzzled (147).”
To start with, the advantages of the Igbo social structure included a balanced society, equality, distribution of labor, a surplus of food, separate huts, a collective society, and some form of government. A centralized society was achieved through the Igbo social structure. This structure served the purpose to impose the same religion upon the people to enforce a common belief. By organizing the society, the people could follow the idea of “unity” to prevent any conflicts or disagreements within the community. Along with a unified society, some kind of equal status came as a result of the social structure that has been established within the clan. Although the social hierarchy did not promote equal status between men and women, it did, to some extent, promote equality within the division of labor among the people. It relieved the pressure of stress, which may have been bestowed up...
In Umofia, manliness is associated with strength and womanliness with weakness (Okhamafe 127). There is no such thing as a strong woman, and all men should disdain weakness. In Umofia, “all men are males, but not all males are men” (Okhamafe 126). Only the strong men who hold titles deserve to be called “men”. The Igbo word “agbala” is an alternate work for “woman” and for a man who had no title. Women in Igbo society are expected to act a certain way. Okonkwo scolds his daughter, Ezinma, when she does not “sit like a woman” (Achebe 44). He will not let Ezinma bring his chair to the wrestling match because it is a “boy’s job” (Achebe 44). Eve...
In the novel, Things Fall Apart, the effects of colonialism were extremely evident in the Igbo society. As the white Englanders moved into the native's land, their cultural values changed. Examples of these changes were evident in all aspects of the Igbo people's lives, in their religion, family life, children, and the dead. Many of the Igboians were upset by the colonialism of their society, but in the end they were completely incapable of doing anything to reverse the changes that had already taken place in their society.
There are constant struggles between gender, identity, commodification, and class. Among the men and women in many African tribes that still exist today, there are divergences, which will always remain intact because of the culture and the way in which they are taught to treat each other. Chinua Achebe wrote the novel, Things Fall Apart, which is a great piece of African literature that deals with the Igbo culture, history, and the taking over of African lands by British colonization. The ongoing gender conflict is a prominent theme in Things Fall Apart presenting the clash between men and women of the African Igbo society. Throughout history, from the beginning of time to today, women have frequently been viewed as inferior, men’s possessions whose sole purpose was to satisfy the men’s needs. Maybe it's because men are physically stronger than women and have always had the ability to control them that way. In Things Fall Apart, the Igbo women were perceived as being weak. They received little or no respect in the Igbo society and were harshly abused. The recurring theme of gender conflicts helps drive the novel Things Fall Apart by showing how important women are to the men, yet they do not receive the treatment they deserve.
The novel Things fall apart depicts the cultural battle between the Igbo and the British: one was trying to keep its tradition, and one wanted to change those traditions by replacing them with a new religion. Finally, the British won because of they could figure out the falsehood in the indigenous people’s degenerate customs and attack it. Nothing in this world is perfect, and it is hard for a culture to be perfect. However, if a culture wants to develop and thrive, it should respect the value of its entire people. That was the reason why the Igbo culture was destroyed, because of its conservativeness, gender differentiation and superstitiously killing of the innocent.
Nwoye grows tired of his father and is called by the Christian faith and converts. Nwoye’s internal struggle with himself between change and tradition ultimately led him to convert against his father’s wishes. Okonkwo is extremely resistant to change, so he does everything in his power to prevent his family from converting; “‘If you turn against me when I am dead I will visit you and break your neck’” (Achebe 105). Okonkwo uses fear to keep his other children from the Igbo culture.
For many reasons outside of the biological differences between male and females they are treated differently in Igbo cultures. Women of Igbo