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The role of women in chinua achebe
Gender on cultural aspects
The role of women in chinua achebe
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In Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart, the Ibo culture revolves around structured gender roles, from the crops that the men and women grow, to the characterization of crimes,which creates tension between the sexes and will ultimately lead to detrimental consequences. Things Fall Apart represents the hardships and struggles between females and males. For example, Ekwefi, the wife of Okonkwo, she is often beat for the things she has genuinely forgotten about . Also, we have Enzima, Okonkwo's favorite daughter, but since she is a female, she must be treated like a women. Although females are considered the weaker gender, they possess many qualities that make them worthy, such as bearing children. Achebe explained the importance of both genders and how they contribute to the society.
Everything, or at least almost everything in the Ibo society revolves around genders and their part to the society. Gender equality is equal valuing of the different roles assumed by men and women.(Okokwo 5579) This demonstrates that women are treated differently from men, and expected to do femin...
In the book, Things Fall Apart, there are a couple of folktales that are extended throughout the book. These folktales contributes to and comments on the central narrative of the story. Animals and folktales were important to the Igbo people. They used animals in fables and stories to demonstrate their beliefs and rituals. With all rituals, animals and symbols play a crucial role in Igbo society. The fable of the Tortoise and the Birds has uncanny similarities with Okonkwo and his rise and fall. The tortoise’s strength and cunningness eventually gets to be too much, which ends up crushing him. And Okonkwo’s inability to adapt to change leads to his demise. Both the tortoise and Okonkwo’s seek to be strong in society and they both want to be known as important. That is why I believe that the fable, The Tortoise and the Birds, is the closest fable to the central narrative of the story.
According to Webster’s dictionary, a tragic hero is a protagonist that is otherwise perfect except for flaws that are intrinsic to his or her character, which often leads to his or her demise. In Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo, the protagonist was unlike tragic heroes such as Oedipus, Iago and Beowulf, because he was not born into nobility, but had to rise to fame and earn respect through his exceptional stamina, hard work and his historic unrivaled success at defeating the famous Amalinze the Cat. Like Beowulf and Oedipus, Okonkwo shares traits that are characteristic of a tragic hero. These traits exposed his mortal fear of failure, his fear of weakness and his fear of becoming like his father who was lazy and poor. Okonkwo also possesses an unwavering pride and an irrepressible anger. Fear, pride and anger are some of the traits of a tragic hero that were inherent in Okonkwo, and this paper will seek to explore how these traits contributed to his downfall Okonkwo’s connection of manliness with rage, ferocity and recklessness eventually leads to his downfall. Okonkwo finds it difficult to accept the changes the Missionaries have brought to Umuofia. The missionaries changed the way the people of Umuofia think, leading to an irreversible division among the people.
The feminist theory, the idea of gender inequality, still exist in our society. Gender, just like race, structures the world, yet women are treated unequally in most aspects. Women are seen as a minority group compared to men. They are expected to be sensitive, weak, supportive, and passive. In the other hand, men are seen as dominant figures that obtain roles that are highly valued. They are though as strong, independent, and competitive human beings. In addition, gender is biological. Each gender one is born with, either man or woman, later on leads one to adopt a gender identity early in life which creates a development of gender-role performances in society’s view. Therefore, in society, each one of us are created to find our own self-discovery.
While reading the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, there were big differences within the roles of men and women in the Igbo culture, but now there are even bigger differences between them and how they used to be. Both women and men are important in the Igbo culture, mainly because each gender has a specific value. Women in their culture have always been seen as caregivers and nurturing to children. They are expected to cook and clean, and they are expected to plan parties and feasts because their husband asks them to. Men, however, primarily have to farm, hunt, fight as warriors, and run the household with a strong hand; the Igbo culture even allows men to beat their wives if they
“Dead Men’s Path” by Chinua Achebe. In this short story “Dead Men’s Path,” Chinua Achebe gives the protagonist an exciting chance to fulfill his dream. Michael Obi was officially headmaster of Ndume Central School, which was backward in every sense. He had to turn the school into a progressive one, however the school received a bad report when the supervisor came to inspect.
The definition of sexism is discrimination on the basis of sex. In many cultures sexism was and still is a controversial topic. In fact, women in America couldn’t even vote until the 1920’s. The abundant masculinity in this novel is not sexism but just how the culture functions. Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart is not sexist towards women; in fact, it shows that women are essential to the Ibo society and posses a great amount of strength.
In the novel, Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, women play the roles of oppressed homemakers that are perceived as weak and defenseless second-class citizens, as the educators of children, and as spiritual leaders in traditional Ibo culture. Through the life of Okonwo, the main character of Things Fall Apart, the roles of women in traditional Ibo culture are presented through various events that take place in the village of Umuofia. In traditional Ibo culture, women were to stay at home and tend to their husbands’ needs and satisfy them. The women were viewed as property of their fathers and were then sold to the suitor that was willing to pay her bride price. A woman had no identity of her own, the status and position of her husband defined her.
The struggle between custom values and conversion is a universally applied theme to Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. The fable like, tragic tone of the work was set off from the very first page. The verb FALL APART has 4 senses to lose one's emotional or mental composure, go to pieces, break or fall apart into fragments, and to become separated into pieces or fragments. These are all exemplified in the novel Things Fall Apart. Okonkwo is a tragic hero in the traditional sense. His fate was decided for him and was unavoidable. Okonkwo’s inability to act rationally and express his feelings in a anthropological manner leads to his inescapable demise. Okonkwo exhibits the characteristics of a tragic hero not only by encompassing an unexceptional flaw. Okonkwo not only developed this flaw because of his erroneous equivalence of masculinity with being filled with relentless fury, vehemence, and impetuousness, but also because he leads to his own self-annihilation.
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a story about personal beliefs and customs, and also a story about conflict. There is struggle between family, culture, and the religion of the Ibo, which is all brought on by a difference in personal beliefs and customs of the Igbo and the British. There are also strong opinions of the main character, Okonkwo. We are then introduced to the views of his village, Umuofia. We see how things fall apart when these beliefs and customs are confronted by those of the white missionaries.
The relationships in the Ibo tribe are necessary throughout Achebe’s novel. The clan develops relationships by age and gender, the men and elderly being highly respected, whereas, women are viewed as less and the childbearers. In the Ibo clan’s individualized families, Polygyny is acutely common, making an average Ibo family quite large. In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo’s family included three wives and 8 children, whom he regularly becomes angered with and beat, and its regularity is accepted as normal. Ibo relationships can also be formed by the social status of the male, based on wealth that is
Masculinity and femininity are both a part of life. However, there is a price to pay for overemphasizing masculinity. In Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe uses Okonkwo’s life to illustrate the costs of being overly concerned with manliness.
For most of recorded history, and even today, women have and continue to pursue gender equality. In the past, women were treated as the inferior sex. They were forced to rely on men to provide for them, and to make their decisions for them. Thanks to the women of previous generations, today women have more independence and credibility, and the gender gap is significantly smaller. Chinua Achebe’s tragedy Things Fall Apart takes place in a pre-colonial Nigerian village community in the 1890s, where the gender gap is still very decided. Gender roles play a big part in the story’s progression and we see how this imbalance between genders negatively impacts men as well as women. The tragic hero, a man named Okonkwo lives with a constant fear of not being manly enough. Okonkwo’s apprehension of weakness and women contributes to his fall from prosperity to adversity.
The literary book “Things Fall Apart” is a well-written novel by Chinua Achebe about an ordinary Nigerian named Okonkwo and how the impact of European colonization in his village, significantly changed his life. Though this is the main idea, the novel also consists of many hidden messages which are shown through the interesting plot turns and literary devices. A theme that Achebe explores through the book is the role of men and women in the Igbo society, and he showcases how certain characters reached out of their gender stereotype. While Ezinma and Nwoye’s actions and mindsets make them different from other children of the same gender, Ekwefi’s interests and mentality set her apart from other women as well. Achebe proves through these characters that the roles of gender differentiation in the Igbo culture were antiquated and also impacted the lives of children by limiting the possibilities of their future.
Has one ever thought about what it is like to be victimized? Well, within Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, there are endless amounts of victimized groups and people. It all begins with a strong, righteous man, Okonkwo, as he makes his way from a poor peasant to one of the most renowned people with in his village. As Okonkwo's journey continues, he meets with the problems of controlling the women within his household, and the only way the villages deals with the control of women, is to beat them, verbally abuse and strike pure fear into them so they will never do any wrong. Not only is Okonkwo at fault for the mistreatment of his wives, another village man, Uzowulu takes part in the beating of his wife and even causes the death of her child. All in all, multiple cases arise that point to the women in Things Fall Apart that they are the most victimized of anyone.
Women are expected to be submissive towards their husbands. They play no role in decision making. Achebe wrote, “Without looking at the man Okonkwo had said. “This meeting is for men.” The man who had contradicted him had no titles. That was why he had called him a woman. Okonkwo knew how to kill a man’s spirit” (Achebe 26). Okonkwo claims that any man who has no title is a women. This reference depicts the way women are portrayed through the men’s eyes and useless and opinionless. This unfair advantage gives women no rights to their thoughts and feelings. Also, men have this image they must live up to. They must be strong and brave. Okonkwo claimed, “Whenever the thought of his father’s weakness and failure troubled him he expelled it by thinking about his own strength and success. And so he did now. His mind went to his latest show of manliness” (Achebe 120). The men of the Ibo society are pictured to be courageous and if not they are considered unfavorable. The men have high expectations and Okonkwo lived with the fear of not being prosperous. Today, men fill the strong, protector role and if they do not they are sometimes viewed as undesirable. This role has been passed down through the story and in present day