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Main themes in Things Fall Apart
Character of okonkwo in things fall apart
Main themes in Things Fall Apart
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In things fall apart the theme masculinity vs. femininity is strongly represented by the main character Okonkwo. Okonkwo is described as a powerful man in the beginning of the story. He is considered a very strong leader. His character reflects from of how his father was. His father was considered very feminine, because EJ he didn’t have the power and strength of the other men in the village. He was very soft towards his son, making Okonkwo wanting to be the opposite of his father. In the beginning of the novel Okonkwo can be seen as the spokesperson for masculinity and is superior to all women in the village. As the plot thickens, we can use foreshadowing to see his future downfall as well as losing his masculinity. Igbo society strongly believed that men were superior to women. Men had all of the roles in the community that required power and knowledge. Men were allowed to have numerous wives, but women could only have one husband and had to serve his needs, including helping fellow sister wives. Men could beat their wives and essentially treat them as objects and the women just had to deal with it. The first major conflict that creates the sense of the theme is when Okonkwo beats his wife during the Week of Peace. He is going against the beliefs of the Igbo …show more content…
This is considered a feminine crime because the act of killing was unintentional. As he creates more violence and rebels from the Igbo clan, he loses more and more of his masculinity. This crime sealed in his fate by exiling him for seven years. The others in the tribe hope he can learn a lesson and possibly leave the clan for good. Over his time being away from his home, there are many changes made in the Igbo society. When Okonkwo returns, he is ready to gain his reputation back as one of the strongest men of the society. He sees the white missionaries have essentially turned the whole village “feminine” in his
Throughout the novel, Oknonkwo does many things to prove his masculine quality. Many of these things are debatable as to whether they affirm Okonkwo's masculinity or if they bring out his true weakness and lead to his destruction. (Goldman 2)
Most of the Igbo people try to have the most domains that they can get so they will beat people to show their domains to the other that live in the Igbo society.“Okonkwo was not the man to stop beating somebody half-way through, not even for fear of at god”(Achebe,1994,p.30). Okonkwo beats his wife to show that he is the dominants between his other wives and the others of the tribe. But the point of the beating that Okonkwo did was to enforce his hierarchy and importance in his society and to the elder’s.Next the village in the Igbo society thing that masculinity is important, but that leads to unfairness in the government system.
Okonkwo, the main character of the book, was born the son of Unoka, who was a loafer. Unoka was too lazy to go out and plant crops on new, fertile land, and preferred to stay at home playing his flute, drinking palm wine, and making merry with the neighbors. Because of this, his father never had enough money, and his family went hungry. He borrowed much money in order to maintain this lifestyle. Okonkwo perceived this as an imbalance toward the female side in his father's character: staying at home and not using one's strength to provide for the family is what the women do. In reaction, Okonkwo completely rejected his father, and therefore the feminine side of himself. He became a star wrestler and warrior in his tribe and began providing for his family at a very young age, while at the same time starting new farms and beginning to amass wealth. He is very successful, and soon becomes one of the leaders of his tribe and has many wives and children. His big ambition is to become one of the powerful elders of the tribe, for what could be more manly than that?
“When an individual is kept in a situation of inferiority, the fact is that he does become inferior.”- Simone de Beauvoir. The theme of gender role is prominent in the novels “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” and “Things Fall Apart.” The Authors of both, “Their Eyes Were Watching God” and “Things Fall Apart” uses the theme of gender roles to define women as less than men.
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.
In the novel Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo is portrayed as a respected and determined individual whose fatal flaw eventually works against him. Throughout the novel the readers are shown that Okonkwo has many of these Characteristics because he is obsessed with the idea of becoming just like his father. This becomes his flaw in the novel that puts him into exile and makes it hard for him to adjust to the changes that were made with in his village.
...uble-crossing his own people like the rest of the tribe starts to do. “Everybody in the assembly spoke, and in the end it was decided to ostracise the Christians. Okonkwo ground his teeth in disgust” (159). Okonkwo’s inability to change and cope with his feelings ultimately made him the woman in the end by killing himself.
In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the ideas of being a man are mentioned throughout the historical fiction novel. Okonkwo, the main character, is very serious about being a man. It is very important in the Ibo culture, where Okonkwo is from to be manly. He does not view his late father as being manly, so Okonkwo wants to be everything his father is not. Sometimes, Okonkwo’s obsession with manliness do more harm than good. Okonkwo is manly because he cares and protects his family, and he is physically strong. On the other hand, Okonkwo is not manly because he is not mentally strong.
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
Okonkwo’s tragic flaw is that “he was afraid of being thought weak,” because “they were the traits of his father,” (Achebe 6; see also El-Dessouky, “The Cultural Impact upon Human Struggle for Social Existence in Chinua Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart’”). Therefore, he follows through in killing a boy he thought of like a son, just to keep his pride and masculinity. “The problem with Okonkwo’s personality is that he is so obsessed with single-mindedness and egocentricity that he cannot hear or accept any idea different from his own,” (Sadeghi, “Role of Colonial Subjects in Making Themselves Inferior in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart”). This infatuation with appearing masculine and strong prevents Okonkwo from welcoming any change. He has built his entire life towards a successful and substantial role in the village to avenge the shame his father placed on his family, so in the face of the Europeans destruction of a traditional culture that he has based his entire life to prosper in, he quickly becomes unhinged. Seeing that masculinity and physical strength are no longer highly valued, attributes he considers almost sacred, he commits
The Igbo people are one of the largest ethnic groups in Africa, they emphasize on personal achievements, and taking titles which means leadership and respect (Ohadike Don C., p. xxvi-xxvii). In the book Things Fall Apart, the main character, Okonkwo is affected by the influences of the Igbo society and vows to become a man of the highest title and to gain respect from all the lands. Okonkwo and his family live in male dominant society where men are superior to women, therefore, Okonkwo thinks he is the owner of his household, and constantly beats his three wives and children. Okonkwo develops arrogant characteristics and a fear of being weak from the traditions of the society, and throughout the book he puts up a hard exterior and beats his son Nwoye, because he thinks Nwoye is lazy and weak. In the end, Nwoye betrays Okonkwo because of his father’s cruel attitudes towards him and the fact that his father murders his adopted brother, Ikemefuna. Due to the influences of the Igbo society, Okonkwo is afraid of being a man without a title and being buried without dignity, so he strives all his life to achieve his dream, this is the cause of his impatient, arrogant characteristics and inner “fear” which eventually leads to his self-destruction. The influence of the Igbo society develops an inner “fear” and traits among the villagers, especially on men, causing negative impacts on their lives.
The man holds the highest importance in the family and it is he who holds the title. In Things Fall Apart, the reader follows the troubles of the main character Okonkwo, a tragic hero whose flaw includes the fact that "his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness" (2865). For Okonkwo, his father Unoka was the essence of failure and weakness.
“The crime was of two kinds, male and female. Okonkwo had been committed the female, because it had been inadvertent. He could return to the clan after seven years (Achebe 124)". Considering it was an accident, the punishment was unbearable. Okonkwo's purpose was not to kill him meaning there should be an exceptional punishment. On the other hand, they described the crime being "female" and "male" which leads to them still being sexist. I'm assuming it’s called a female crime becausewomen are weak, they're too powerless to deliberately kill someone, and men are fearless. With that in mind, naming the crime by gender isn’t the respectable towards women. They see them as defenseless, and think they were created to cook or carry their children. Women are more than
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
]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”).