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How Are Women Portrayed In Things Fall Apart

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The position and image of women in Things Fall Apart is an important topic. In the novel “things fall apart, by Chinua Achebe”, women in the Ibo tribe are terribly mistreated, and viewed as weak and receive little or no respect outside their role as a mother. The people in the Ibo tribe uses a description “Agbala”, which means that whenever a person is called Agbala, he is compared to a woman, who is weak, and pretty much worthless. Another example is when Okonkwo participates in the killing of Ikemefuna He participates in order to show the people that he is not weak and “Agbal” like his father, who is said to be useless and worthless like a woman. In the Ibo culture, women are only viewed to be gentle and caring. They are expected to take care of their children with their best ability. …show more content…

Many of the men freely beat their wives when they do not behave properly or complete tasks ineffectively and there are usually no repercussions for this. Women are viewed by the tribesmen as inferior, but upon closer examination of the roles the two genders play within the novel, we can see that women are truly a source of strength and sustenance for their families.

In “Things Fall Apart”, one recognizes just how much the representation by Achebe of Igbo society in “Things Fall Apart” is changing because women, who were typically restricted to the home and who possessed little decision-making power prior to colonialism, suddenly find themselves agents of important social exchanges through the roles they play in the trade that occurs in the market, as well as in the production of the crops that are sold at

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