Femininity In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

As a child Okonkwo had a great resented his father as he considered weak and a failure, as an adult he still remembered when a playmate had told him that his father was an “agbala”. Which he first came to know that ”agbala” was a name for a woman, it could also mean a man who had no title. His fear is to be like his father, someone weak as a women, which within his village is a great insult, which had negatively affected his perspective as women. As he himself does want to be called a woman, no

Okonkwo’s belief regarding how men must behave, overemphasizes Okonkwo’s masculinity, and does not allow for any self-reflection or change for himself. It is the fear of looking weak, or feminine, that causes his own destruction after his return to Umuofia. Okonkwo is upset by the changes in the village by the white people while he was exiled from Umuofia. Achebe describes his feelings as, “he mourned for the warlike men of Umuofia who had so unaccountably become soft like women” (183). The ideal of extreme masculinity makes Okonkwo upset about the changes in behavior of men and his village while he was gone.

There are many phrases within this novel and within today’s society that are used to degrade a man’s ego. The similarities are resorting to some form of femininity one is displaying. “That was why he had called him a woman. Okonkwo knew how to kill a man’s spirit” (Achebe 32). This quote emphasizes on the word, “woman” in the degradation of “a man’s spirit,” and quite frankly in modern America, the phrase such as, “stop acting like a girl,” is used often as a form of a male not obtaining enough manliness in a situation. Later on in the novel Okonkwo believe that though his strength seems up to

In the more traditional aspect of Igbo life, being womanly was seen as an extreme weakness, hinting at the idea that being a woman was not good enough. This shows us that women were not highly looked upon in society. They were expected to simply grow up and become a wife, seemingly giving a woman almost no power in society. In Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart,” we can see an example of how being feminine is negative with the character Okonkwo and his father. Okonkwo is very ashamed of his father, and he constantly describes his father as being more feminine than masculine. Unoka, his father, “was a failure” (5). Okonkwo carried this shame throughout his life: “…his whole life was dominated by fear” (13) and “…It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father” (13). When Okonkwo was little, another boy insulted his father and called him “agbala” (13). “That was how Okonkwo first came to know that agbala was

In the culture Okonkwo lives in and believes in, men are portrayed as greater, more powerful, more important, and more useful than women. Also, men and women have “set in stone” occupations that guide the actions and choices they make in life. For example, in Umuofia it is customary to have one’s wives live in huts with the children, while the men farm for yams. This shows that Okonkwo needs power, control and order to feel safe and content with his life. Umuofia values women the same way as Okonkwo does, like a pawn.

In Things Fall Apart the novel, Okonkwo was determined to be nothing like his father Unoka, this “strict adherence to masculine standards, (which causes the destruction of his family, creates dissent in his tribe, and leads him to his death) supports the value of the feminine in Igbo culture.” “Though it may seem that women are seen as the weaker sex in Ibgo society,” (E., Skwiot personal comment, August 23, 2016)

Chinua Achebe once said: “Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness.”. In other words, deep down Okonkwo wasn’t mean, but because he showed no weakness all of his emotions were presented as anger and hatred. In one of Achebe’s most well known piece Things Fall Apart, it shows the importance in Africa of being a strong powerful man who shows no weaknesses. Things Fall Apart expresses masculinity by showing the male stereotype through different characters and the things that define what makes a man. However, Achebe did not intend for the reader to grasp onto how Okonkwo behaves and his hypermasculinity; instead he wrote the novel for readers to understand that it’s essential to show

In the story Things Fall Apart the author, Chinua Achebe, uses the character Okonkwo to show that a man’s hubris can one day lead to a terrible fate. Achebe does this by having the main character Okonkwo struggle with keeping his life together. As Victor Uchendu talks about life in The Igbo World “is an equilibrium that is constantly threatened, and sometimes actually disturbed by natural and social calamities”(Uchendu 227). In the beginning of the story Okonkwo starts off as the strongest character when he defeats “Amalinize the Cat” (Achebe 3). This shows the reader that Okonkwo is the strongest and is determined to stay the strongest. Achebe uses certain events later in the story to foreshadow that Okonkwo will soon meet a terrible fate by having him kill Ikemefuna, by having him get kicked out of his village, by having the British change his son, and by displaying his rage and despair at the end of the story.

Which would you consider more justified: locking up a criminal in cage with minimal living conditions, or exiling him from city? In Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart, the level of civilization depicted by Igbo society may vary among the readers due to disparities in judgement and opinion. Throughout the book, the Igbo civilization is portrayed as civil through their established social system and enforced legislative laws; however, one may perceive Igbo culture as primitive, especially when compared to that of their own. The establishment of social positions within Umuofian society convey a rather high-level of civilization.

There is an enormous divide between the roles of a man and the roles of a woman in the Umuofia tribe. Achebe states 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,” (Achebe 45). If a man was thoughts to be anything relating to feminine, he is not deserving of respect. Professor Florence Stratton Writes that it is “a fear of femininity that impels Okonkwo to participate in the killing of Ikemefuna, the act which inaugurates his own decline,” (Stratton 34). Stratton believes that it is in fact Okonkwo’s fear of being unmasculine that caused his downfall. Though this is a valid argument, there must be a cause for that fear. As stated previously, Okonkwo would not have such a fragile view of himself and his masculinity if it wasn’t for his father’s impact on his life in the first

“Okonkwo was ruled by one passion- to hate everything that his father Unoka had loved. One of those things was gentleness and the other was idleness.” (Achebe 13). Okonkwo had another disposition to gentleness. To him, gentle meant feminine.

In Things Fall Apart, there are numerous occurrences in which the male dominates and the female is left behind. Only men go to meetings to decide what the fate of the village would be. Okonkwo is the only one in his family to go out to the farm and plant yam seeds. Only men go to store the yams in their respective barns and the only job their wives have in that process is to cook those yams for the husband to eat. When the food is cooked, it is taken to the husband in order of oldest wife to youngest. In chapter 5 (page 44) before the wrestling match begins, Ezinma asks Okonkwo, “Can I bring your chair for you?” and Okonkwo replies with, “No, that is a boy’s job.” What the story is trying to portray is that society has kept specific roles

In the U.S. it is perfectly normal for a woman to have custody of her children, but in the Igbo culture that is completely unheard of. Achebe’s purpose for writing this book was to eliminate the stereotypes on the African culture, as well as to instill pride in his own people. The main theme in the novel is that women are respected, but not valued. Achebe reveals this through the inability of women to perform certain task, Chika the priestess and finally, through the Igbo marriage process. The source of evidence will be Chinua Achebe’s

“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

Throughout the novel, Achebe describes Okonkwo’s thoughts about Unoka to portray Okonkwo as a strong, masculine character who is driven by a