One of the central themes that Achebe developed in his book “Things Fall Apart” is the contrast between feminine and masculine in the African tribes, more specifically Umofia. In the Ibo culture the gender difference plays an important role in Umofian people’s daily life, and has become one of the centric themes of Achebe’s book. This masculinity vs femininity theme has developed through novels protagonist, Okonkwo, by explaining his different reactions toward folktales, sports, and farming. In the novel “Things Fall Apart” Achebe introduced two type of stories to his audience which one symbolizes women and the other men. The stories that has been told in the book about war, blood, violence, and killing refers to mankind stories while the folktales, and stories that have centric theme of kindness, emotions, and sensibility are the female type stories. Okonkwo, main character of the novel, put his gentleness and kindness aside long time ago when he decided to not ended up as a failure like his father. From his point of view every stories has based on sensible, kindness, and nonviolent themes are foolish and …show more content…
Achebe introduced two type of farming to his audience, which one is for women and the others is for men. Even for farming the men are superior to women as they have been allowed to plant the major crop, yams. Yams are the main source of food for African people and according to their culture “Yam stood for manliness, and he who could feed his family on yams from one harvest to another was a very great man indeed.”(Achebe, 33). In the Umofia women were also allowed to farm but they had to plant “women crops like coco yams, beans and cassava” (Achebe, 23). “Yam, the king of crops was a man crop” (Achebe, 23). The lack of power for women to farm the king of corps, yams, once more shows the gender difference along African culture and the superiority of masculine over
Okonkwo associates many of his tribal influences with masculinity. Right away in the book, Achebe affiliates strength with manliness. “As a young man of eighteen he had brought honor to his village by throwing Amalizine the Cat” (3). He is honored because he had enough strength and agility to overthrow the cat. Okonkwo feels to be successful and manly, one also must show no emotion. He thinks emotion is for the weak and for woman, and he does not want to be either of those. “Okonkwo never showed any emotion openly, unless it be the emotion of anger. To show affection was a sign of weakness,-the only thing worth demonstrating was strength” (28). Okonkwo treats Ikemefuna with this idea. He becomes very fond of the child, but never outwardly shows his affection. If he showed his affection he was afraid he would be looked down upon in his tribe. Although his father enjoyed little things like music and dancing, Okonkwo had no desire to share his father’s enjoyment. He desired power and wealth. He wants to construct and maintain a big house for his many wives and even more children. “Okonkwo was clearly cut out for great things. He was still young but he had won fame as the greatest wrestler in the nine villages. He was a wealthy farmer and had two barns full of ...
her heavily.” (p. 29). Despite the beatings, Achebe shows that the Ibo women have valuable parts in the
In the book “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe certain themes are present in the the
“A man belongs to his fatherland when things are good and life is sweet. But when there is sorrow and bitterness he finds refuge in his motherland. Your mother is there to protect you. . . . And that is why we say that mother is supreme” (p.134). In Achebe’s 1959 “Things Fall Apart”, female figures appear to have minor domesticated roles; however with these words Achebe calls attention to female strength within the tribe. Feminine power is recognized within the tribe, and fear of this power provides the foundation for the male obsession with displays of masculinity. Achebe highlights significant female goddesses, displays a solid feminine role in education, fully develops strong-minded female characters, and demonstrates masculine catastrophes, therefore establishes female as the stronger gender in the tribe.
Okonkwo’s fear leads him to treat members of his family harshly, in particular his son, Nwoye. Okonkwo often wonders how he, a man of great strength and work ethic, could have had a son who was “degenerate and effeminate” (133). Okonkwo thought that, "No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children (and especially his women) he was not really a man" (45).
As wise John Berger once said,“Never again shall a single story be told as though it were the only one”. A “single story” is the story of a culture that we learn from stereotypes and conspiracies developed throughout time in our society. In “Things Fall Apart”, Chinua Achebe defies the single story of African culture while still tying their native language in to show the importance between a physical differentiation of culture, and the similarities with morals and values they have in common. Through gender roles and proverbs used in the language of this book, we have a cultural insight of Nigeria through a new set of eyes given to us by Achebe that detures us from the single stories that we were taught to by our 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.
]k Adegbite O. came to a similar conclusion about Okonkwo’s views on masculinity and femininity when he makes the remark in his essay that, “Okonkwo is of the opinion that traditional men have lost their place in society and cannot be termed ‘worthy’ anymore as Western culture has softened their resolve; men have been turned to weaklings by colonisation and the white man’s religion” (Tobalase, “Masculinity and Cultural Conflict in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart”).
In Things Fall Apart, Achebe uses Okonkwo’s actions and his reactions to tragedy to exhibit his obsession with masculinity, and unveils that in any society, socialized stereotypes of genders results in a
Before the arrival of the Europeans, Achebe did a excellent job portraying how the life of Igbo was before they were forced to oppose their own culture. To support this theme, Achebe included detailed descriptions of social rituals within each family, the justice system, religious practices and consequences, preparation and indulgence of food, the marriage process and the distributing of power within the men. Achebe shows how every man has an opportunity to prove himself worthy to achieve a title on the highest level, based merely on his own efforts. One may argue that the novel was written with the main focus on the study of Okonkwo’s character and how he deteriorates, but without the theme that define the Igbo culture itself, we would never know the universe qualities of the society that shaped Okonkwo’s life. The lives of the Igbo people was no different to the actual lives of the Ibos people back in the early days of Africa. Just like in Things Fall Apart, in actual African tribes there was never a ruler. “Very interesting thing about these villages is that there is no single ruler or king that controls the population. Decisions are made by including almost everyone in the village” (AfricaGuide). Using the theme, Achebe educated readers on by mirroring real African life in her
“Be a man” is common quote heard involving males in American society, especially when they are young. It is used to prompt one to be independent and tough and it seems that not only the Igbo tribe is concerned with a man’s masculinity. It is widely known throughout the world that the man of the house provides and protects the family. In Chinua Achebe’s book, Things Fall Apart, being a masculine and strong male is important and even accentuated to where it is the only thing a male focuses on. In this book, Achebe portrays a man, Okonkwo, who is obviously obsessed with masculinity and power while claiming the new religion, brought by the colonists, to not be manly enough. This happens while his tribe falls apart since they do not share Okonkwo’s
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...
The way women were viewed has changed, from being close to slaved by their spouses, to working and demanding alongside them. According to the Ibo culture in Things Fall Apart, women didn’t and couldn’t have the high status they hold today, there were obedient, wouldn’t speak for themselves and followed every order their husband command. Therefore were just taken for granted in the village. “In those days a good woman was basically seen as a wife and mother who spoke when she was spoken to, brought up the children and maintained the “home front.”” (1). Today's modern society in Nigeria had changed for many women, not a huge change, but big enough that the women had more freedom and rights. “Women still have fewer legal rights than men.” (4). Women aren’t as liberated as you think, but they no longer have to answer to anybody but themselves. The values and needs of women has been incorporated into the society and will continue to upgrade throughout a large number of
Okonkwo sees his father’s gentleness as a feminine trait. He works hard to be as masculine as possible so that he will be the opposite of his father and overcome the shame his father brought to his family. Okonkwo deals with this struggle throughout the entire book, hiding the intense fear of weakness behind a masculine façade (Nnoromele 149). In order to appear masculine, he is often violent. In his desire to be judged by his own worth and not by the worth of his effeminate father, Okonkwo participates in the killing of a boy he sees as a son, even though his friends and other respected tribe members advise him against it. (Hoegberg 71). Even after the killing of Ikamefuna, Okonkwo hides his feelings of sadness because the emotions are feminine to him. He goes so far as to ask himself, “when did you become a shivering old woman” (Achebe 65), while he is inwardly grieving. The dramatic irony of the secret fears that Okonkwo has will open the reader’s eyes to how important gender identity is to him. This theme is also presented among Okonkwo’s children. He sees his oldest son, Nwoye, as feminine because he does not like to work as hard as his father (Stratton 29). When Nwoye eventually joins the Christian church, Okonkwo sees him as even more feminine. On the other hand, Okonkwo’s
An extreme contrast of his father, Okonkwo strives to appear as masculine as possible. Even though his traits were already considered very masculine, Okonkwo persistently tries to ensure he is not seen as his definition of weak, more so in the presence of his family then others, in an attempt for his sons to act masculine as well. However, not all agree with his interpretation of manliness, such as his son Nwoye and his friend Obierika, as both did not agree with Okonkwo’s actions when he killed the boy Ikemefuna, who viewed Okonkwo as a father, to not appear weak in front of others. Nevertheless, Okonkwo’s true masculinity is still shown throughout the book, such as when he far...