In life, people of different gender or ethnicity are segregated based on just their physical features, and no one pays attention to the outcome. Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart incorporates many aspects of the Ibo culture into this novel. This novel shows how one village moves through life from the aspect of where it can be productive or harmful. One of the highest ranking leaders of the Village of Umuofia, Okonkwo has a family of many wives and children. Okonkwo goes through thriving in the village into falling to the bottom of the pyramid, as he becomes exiled. In Umuofia women along with children would be abused by their husbands for the littlest of things. Many wonder, why women? Masculinity and Femininity can demonstrate differences …show more content…
Society brings many different sorts of people contributing success to society, with the most obvious detail being that they are masculine or feminine. This diversity can bring a very splendid, beneficial contribution to all that are in relation with that society. Achebe states, “He has a large barn full of yams and he had three wives” (Achebe 6). To begin with, the women in Umuofia are shown as a symbol. This symbol shows the femininity and how the women are shown as a prise that makes a man outstand amongst the other men. The number of wives one man has usually signifies his superiority to the village. Later on, Achebe finds himself at a states where he explains this quote as to why Okonkwo is not a failure and has brought so much success to the world around him. Okonkwo is very well respected and thought of as a leader not only because of the superiority he gains from his wives, but the fact where he is that one figure that has all the manly features that are brought to an extensive level. Another fact can be where the women seem to be the ones to benefit to the society in their form of being a women. From having children to helping around the huts of their husbands, this can all be shown to comfort the husbands. Wives are not the only women expressed in Umuofia. …show more content…
Most of these negative aspects are from how the men of Umuofia treat the women and children. Men in Things Fall Apart seem to want to have all the superiority among everything. In our present society we say, “All humans were created equal,” but Achebe did not incorporate that into his novel. Everyone would have the opinion where certain things in society were only for certain genders to do. In view of this, an example can be where Ezinma, Okonkwo’s daughter says, “Can I bring you a chair for you,” and Okonkwo replying, “No that is a boy’s job” (Achebe 44). This being, the inference of how certain genders have to do certain jobs can set a really negative impression. In accordance, men in Umuofia also thought using their physical abilities was an appropriate way to get their women to do something. “No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children he was not really a man.” (pg 53) This strong quote from the test shows where men have that though in their minds where if they believe that they are like a women, they take action and do something. The instant resolution is to beat their wives or children to prove they are still manly. As a result, these two major points show how masculinity and femininity negatively impact one's
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
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.
In this story, Achebe defines societal standards as the basis for personal status. It is evident throughout the story as we see Okonkwo, a very strong and fierce character struggle to adapt to the new changes and technology the Missionaries had to offer. These changes were not just religious based, the Europeans were there to expand the village, but in turn change and take away what it was created upon. The people of Umuofia prided themselves in their founding traditions, soon these traditions were going to be considered impractical, and these same traditions that the people saw as i...
Okonkwo eventually joins Ekwefi after searching for her around the tribe. This is illustrated when Achebe writes, “She must have heard a noise behind her and turned round sharply. A man stood there with a machete in his hand” (Achebe 108). Okonkwo going after his wife and daughter, indicates that Ekwefi helps keep the family together and if she did not leave Okonkwo might have just waited for his daughter to return. Although the women bring the family closer together, they also help preserve important traditions in the tribe.
Okonkwo, the main character in Achebe’s novel, begins as an individual who holds great power in the Umuofi...
Umuofia is a “male-dominated society in which the chief goddess is female and in which proverbial wisdom maintains ‘mother is supreme’”(Nnormele, 274) as explained by Achebe himself. Things Fall Apart brings you way back to a day and age where both males and females each had their life task set up for them based on their gender. Males were meant to do masculine things such as having “wives, yam barns, social titles [which were] the highest accolades for the successful farmer, warrior, and man of worth.” (Mezu 212) determining his social status and women do “the core of the rural workforce ‐farming, tending animals, nurturing children, among other activities.”(Mezu, 212). Feminism is seen as an insult and dehumanizing for the men. At a young age boys aren 't suppose to hang around their mother anymore but be with their father and learn things with out a filter or censor about the world. You see this when Nwoya is now in the hut with Okonkwo hearing stories, the stories are about war and so on. While there Nwoya understands that he has to be there and hear those things because of masculinity but he much rather be in his mothers hut hearing the stories she tells the little
A main character in the novel, Okonkwo has several wives. He orders them around like dogs. They are never to question what they are instructed to do; they are expected to be obedient. We see this early in the story, when Okonkwo brings Ikemefuna into his home. Okonkwo tells his senior wife that Ikemefuna belongs to the tribe and that she is expected to look after him. She in turn asks him if he will be staying with them for a long period of time. This sends Okonkwo into a fury. He snaps at her in a very degrading manner, "Do what you are told woman. When did you become one of the ndichie (meaning elders) of Umuofia?"(pg.12) Clearly she receives no respect. Later in the story we see this woman try to comfort Ikemefuna. She "mothers" him as if he is one of her own children. She tries to put him at ease and can almost instinctively feel how much he misses his own mother.
The Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a straight to the point story, embedded with interesting elements that capture readers’ attention. In my view, when I read the story, I found many interesting things about the theme of the book. But The Masculinity Okonkwo was what captures my attention. The story opens up to a Traditional Igbo lifestyle, a theme which is highly stylized from its ritual to the actions performed for certain ceremonies. Most of the action Igbo tribe has been an attempt to show respect to the gods, for example, when ikemefuna became sick and his stomach swelled up their traditions says that he take them to the evil forest and kill him. The story also seems to focus on gender, family, respect and reputation, and religion. In fact, Gender which in Igbo tradition, sets standards and roles between Igbo women and men. Women in Igbo Culture are the weaker sex, but are endowed with qualities that make them worthy of worship, like the ability to bear children. Men in Igbo Culture are the stronger sex, which gives them the ability to provide for their family and has prowess on the battlefield. In Igbo culture, building a nice and respectable family is important and titles in their culture gives them respect and builds reputation in the ‘‘Umuofia’’ village playing a big role in Igbo tradition. Nothing plays a bigger role in Igbo tradition than religion, the ‘‘Umuofia’’ village worship the goddess of the earth are always careful to avoid committing sins of their goddess with a fear of vengeance that might wipe out an entire generation. In the story, the men of the Umuofia village seem to care a lot about masculinity, when Okonkwo is hosting a party he takes it very seriously and ...
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.
In Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe utilizes Okonkwo’s desire to be perceived as masculine through the act of putting his own interests above those of the clan in order to portray how Igbo society is negatively affected by gender roles. Gender roles are the norms and behavior that society expects each gender (male and female) to adhere to. So, for example, in the novel, men are expected to provide for their families and women are expected to be submissive to their husbands. The idea of gender roles has a negative effect on Igbo society because it enslaves people to a gendered way of life that can, at times, limit people from expressing their true feelings out of fear of breaking societal expectations.
In the book women are being treated poorly. Okonkwo has three wives in which he expects for them to follow his orders or there would be consequences. Women do not get enough credit in the Igbo culture, they do so much stuff but yet receive so little credit for their work. They cook, clean the house and take care of their kids. They get disrespected by their own husbands. For example, when Okonkwo hit his youngest wife because she left the hut without making
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...
First, the book introduces the many inequalities between men and women. In the novel, Achebe tells of Okonkwo beating his wives and it still being socially acceptable. A woman is never allowed to fight back or stand up for herself because she is the equivalent of a servant to a master. Achebe also mentions, "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” (Achebe 53). This excerpt from the novel exemplifies the controlling and dominance the men have over women in this Nigerian culture. Unfortunately, this inequality, although not completely tolerated, still exists today. It is proven that every woman has or will experience discrimination from men in their life (Crawford). While the abuse of women is not generally accepte...
According to David Whittaker, Achebe’s work “proved to be an immensely influential work for African writers, becoming the progenitor of a whole movement of fiction, drama, and poetry, which focused on the revaluation of Africa’s history and cultures, and on representations of the culture conflicts that has their genesis in the colonial era.” This novel became a pivotal point of realization not only for Africa, but also for the world. All at once the world, afraid of what change may bring, pushed the same question to the back their mind: “What if we have it all wrong?” Suddenly, the culture of Africa was influencing the culture of America, Asia, Europe, Australia, etc. Achebe’s novel was a catalyst in the process of nationalist renewal and decolonization of African culture as a whole (Whittaker). A principle in this novel’s thematic course is the inter-generation conflict faced by not only the village as a whole, but also, on a microscopic level, in Okonkwo’s household. As the culture in Umuofia begins to shift, the predecessors of the current generation heavily rely on the cultural norms initiated by their father’s fathers. While tradition should be honored in a society, it should also be modified; this concept is not fully grasped by the older generations of
Even if a man had a title for himself if he did not have control of his wife and children, he was not considered a true man, “No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule this women and his children, he was not really a man(53)”. Man of Igbo are held a high amount of power, which is why Okonkwo’s nine children and three wives were often terrified of his anger. Okonkwo struggles with his prominent attitude that men are more important than women because he fears to not be successful and resemble his father, Unoka, whom he refers to as a “woman”. Unoka, before his death was lazy, irresponsible, and weak, as he was known for owning money to others. Achebe uses Unoka, as an example that is a was not manly or did not earn himself a worthy title, that he is not looked at as a real man. Umofia was strict about the understanding that all men must be strong, even when Okonkwo wanted to care for others in a compassionate way he could not because they would mistake that for weakness. For example, when Okonkwo wanted to save Ikemefuna from death, Achebe states, he could not do that because he is too prideful and being strong for men in Umofia, is not just a characteristic but a lifestyle. Okonkwo has no problem letting go of his son Nwoye because he chose the catholic religion over what his father believed in. For a