Feminist Theory In Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart”, they recognize the life of the Igbos which are a tribe in the village of Umuofia during European colonization. There are many topics brought up in this book like the effects of colonization, culture and tradition, religion, race, etc. It is relatively easy to read “Things Fall Apart” as an anti-feminist text due to the face that the Igbo clan’s customs and traditions seem to side towards masculine features, such as power and strength. The novel is told through a male protagonist’s point of view in nineteenth century Nigeria, while women there do not have much rights, they do wield heavy influence over the leaders of the clan. In the villages of Umuofia, men are seen as more imperious and well respected while females are portrayed as weak. For example, it was mentioned that “his mothers and sisters worked hard enough but they grew women’s crops like coco-yams, beans and cassava. Yam, the king of crops, was a man’s crop.” (Achebe 17). Okonkwo, the main character, hated anything frail or weak, and his descriptions of his …show more content…
For instance, women painted the the compound of the egwugwu (Achebe 84). Furthermore, the first wife of a man in the Ibo society is paid some respect. This deference is illustrated by the palm wine ceremony at Nwakibie's obi . Anasi, Nwakibie's first wife, had not yet arrived and "the others [other wives] could not drink before her" (Achebe 22). The importance of woman's role appears when Okonkwo is exiled to his motherland. His uncle, Uchendu, noticing Okonkwo's distress, eloquently explains how Okonkwo should view his exile: "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." A man has both joy and sorrow in his life and when the bad times come his "mother" is always there to comfort him. Thus comes the saying "Mother is
He was too proud to let his tribe give up their warlike history. He was to proud and self-assured to accept his son's choices. Okonkwo is a sad character whose pride has constantly led him down the crooked path. Achebe shows that being proud isn't a constructive thing for the future. That development can only occur when pride is put aside, and people think logically instead of
while taking care of children and hens are womanly activities. Achebe also shows the traditional elements of igbo in this chapter. The marketplace gathering shows what the Igbo society 's idea for what being a man is about. the male villager loyaltys to others when a woman is murdered by another village. we also learn that Umuofian traditions include the worship of wooden items showing their personal god, but also the common one.
The pre-colonial and postcolonial Igbo society has been observed to be male dominated. Men reign supreme in sociocultural affairs while the female figure has specific limited prescribed roles, a confirmation of absence of feministic ideologies. Motherhood, being submissive to the husband and generally domestic dutiesare some of the roles women are associated with. As the title of the novel by Buchi Emecheta Second Class Citizenimplies, the female figure has been treated as a lesser significant sexwithin the Igbo society considering that equalityamong women is limited by their fathers, husbands and the general patriarchy system. This is something Adah finds quite the same when she moves to England whereby with her African descent she continues to suffer womanhood struggles.
In an article about the Igbos perception of women there is a proverb that says “when a lady lives to her satisfaction, she puts her buttocks in the kitchen” (Mmadike 100). This is saying that the men do not want women in the way of things. Women are to do what they need to do and then go to the kitchen. The men are valued because they do all the “heavy lifting.” Okonkwo said “I will not have a son who cannot hold up his head in the gathering of the clan.
Also, such indication can be found in the narrated folktale stories by Okonkwo’s wives about the earth goddess, Ani, and the god of the sky, Chukwu. The balance of genders that the spiritual world of Umuofia society in Achebe’s novels reflects upon indicates at the same time the chaos that Okonkwo’s world develops to. By ignoring females and their importance in his life, Okonkwo fulfils Obierika’s warning when he commits suicide, thus giving in under Ani’s
In most fairy tales and novels a humble male role is used to dictate the normality of writing. In “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo, a strong male role is not only that, a lead character, but he is also cruel and prone to violent tendencies In the novel Okonkwo experiences harsh changes when the white men first came and at the beginning of colonialism. In “Things Fall Apart”, Achebe uses Okonkwo to display the negative change in everyday Igbo culture after colonialism. In this novel by Achebe, before colonialism was introduced, Okonkwo was a known masculine member of Umuofia.
The author, Chinua Achebe, used Okonkwo as an example of the father/son conflict and how the conflict affects a man’s life. Just because one does not always act like the typical strong, almost emotionless man, that does not mean one is coward. Okonkwo’s thought process leads to his demise because he cannot bear to see the strong willed tribe and culture he has known his whole life fail him: just
Okonkwo often thinks that his favorite child Enzinma “should have been a boy” because she has “the right spirit’ and he worries about Nwoye because he cannot “make him into a man” and he would not win in “a wrestling match” (Achebe 66). The reason Okonkwo favor Enzinma over Nwoye is because she has more strength and she understands her father more both of which are things he would prefer in a boy. He dislikes Nwoye because he views him as weak and lazy which are traits that he would prefer in a girl. The gender distinction in Igbo impacts their society, occupations and behaviors. What causes gender division in Igbo culture is their polytheistic religious beliefs in Ani and Chukwu which depicts women as tender and men as belligerent.
First, his relationship with his father Unoka. Who he did not have a great relationship with. And someone he did not specifically care for. Someone he knew who just so happen to be his father. In the book there is a quote “okonkwo was ruled by one passion- to hate everything his father had loved”.
His fear of weakness and failure is derived from his father, Unoka’s failures, which ignite Okonkwo’s misogynistic views. Throughout his lifetime, Okonkwo associates femininity with weakness because of Unoka, who was called an “agbala” or woman by the people of Umuofia. Since women have this reputation for weakness, Okonkwo lives with constant fear that he will be given the same title as his father. Okonkwo’s first son, Nwoye’s effeminacy reminds Okonkwo of his own father. He says, "I have done my best to make Nwoye grow into a man, but there is much of his mother in him ."(Achebe, 66).
At the end they decided, as everybody knew they would, that the girl should go to Ogbuefi Udo to replace his murdered wife. As for the boy, he belonged to the clan as a whole, and there was no hurry to decide his fate.” (Achebe 12) At the beginning of the book, a girl taken from a neighboring village is decided rapidly compared to the young boy, Ikemefuna, who was also taken and dent to live with Okonkwo. Another challenge women in the Igbo society faced were beatings.
He thinks that anyone who is not like that is weak The main reason why Okonkwo is a tragic hero is that of how weak his chi is. The chi takes a big important role in the novel because according to the Igbo people, anything something goes wrong with a person it is because of there bad chi.in the beginning of the book, Okonkwo seems to be the one that has the best chi and has everything going for him at the time. In the beginning of the book the reader is meant though think that Okonkwo will overcome anything that is thrown at him because of his chi. This is shown in the novel when
He was a caring man down in his heart but “his whole life was dominated by the fear, the fear of failure and of weakness” (Achebe 13), and his mission to become one of the greatest men of his clan. Okonkwo was devoted to masculinity, he put it above anything else preventing anyone from questioning his masculinity. When he felt a slight sign of weakness it reminded him of his fathers failure to being a true man not providing for his family or ruling women and his children, therefore “he was not really a man” (Achebe 53).There were many traits to being a masculine man but to Okonkwo the main one was ruling his wife and children, if any of them had disobeyed him he would beat them without hesitation or regret. Although Okonkwo is influenced by masculinity it is because the Ibo culture believes in men dominating women which leads their society to fall
They also function as spiritual leaders and carry out other very important role in the Ibo society. Therefore it is incorrect to call women weak, one of the examples of powerful women in the Igbo village is found in the role they play in the Igbo religion. The women routinely perform the role of priestess. The narrator recalls that during Okonkwo’s boyhood, “the priestess in those days was a woman called Chika. She was full of the power of her god, and she was greatly feared”.
One of the main themes in this novel was the fear of failure. This theme was shown through Okonkwo’s attempt to escape the image of his deceased father; “But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness... It was not external but lay deep within himself. It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father” (Achebe). Okonkwo’s father was a kind man, but never paid back his debts, which lead to him being looked down upon by the members of his tribe.