Marriage Is A Private Affair By Chinua Achebe

Nwoye’s unavoidable decision of converting cultures was lead by his search for acceptance and in hopes of escaping his immoral religion and Okonkwo’s high expectations for him as a man. Okonkwo is not satisfied with Nwoye’s sensitive and slothful personality After Ikemefuna’s unjustified death, Nwoye loses respect for Okonkwo and puts an emotional barrier between them.

Nwoye's understanding of masculinity and femininity and how they related to him and his culture created a disconnect. Nwoye describes his

The novel also explores the negative impact that inequality has on the lives of Nigerians. Characters experience both gender inequality and inequality between different classes of society. In the story ‘Tomorrow Is Too Far’ the author highlights that how her grandmamma treats her and brother differently. Her grandmamma taught her brother Nonso how to pluck the coconuts but not her. Because ‘girls never plucked coconuts’. Nonso was always given the first sip of coconuts and grandmamma cooked meals with him in mind, not his sister. Nonso’s sister was told instead ‘this is how you will take care of your husband one day’. And also her mother used to end her brother’s nightly goodnight ‘ho-ho-ho’ laughing, but never left her room laughing. That’s all because Nonso is grandmama’s ‘sons only son, who would carry on the Nnabuisi’ name. This demonstrates that the importance of name and that these beliefs lead to gender inequality. The author also shows the negative impact of gender inequality.

Adichie’s characters are subject to cultural suppression in several of the short stories. This is most pronounced in ‘The Arrangers of Marriage’ where Chinaza is forced by her husband to assimilate to her new surroundings by ridding herself of all signs of being Nigerian,

After Nwoye’s childhood, he discovers the trouble he has with pleasing his father, and Okonkwo always contradicts Nwoye about not having the same or even more status as Okonkwo had when he was his age. Nwoye will never be the “great farmer and great man” Okonkwo wants him to be, during society at this time, opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative was very admirable (33). With the type of negative feedback, Nwoye receives from his father saying that he will amount to nothing, shows how Nwoye develops insecurity with his identity as an Ibo citizen. Contradictingly, Okonkwo is very pleased and rather arrogant with his status in matter of the village. He is already one of the “greatest” men of his time starting from his youth when in Ibo culture age was respected. The setting of Nigeria plays a major role in the identity of Nwoye and Okonkwo seeing that prosperity for men at that time is having wealth and potent personality. Okonkwo was obviously successful in terms of riches; he owned a huge barn full with yams, the king of all crops, and has three wives. During this time Okonkwo lives a lush life and could not have been more proud of who he is identified as. Having the drive to accomplish significance in life, Okonkwo’s achievements were admired by most people in the village, showing “if a

-After Nwoye is lured into the Christian religion and abandons his culture and family, Okonkwo is ashamed and states, "you have all see the great abomination of your brother. Now he is no longer my son or your brother. I will only have a son who is a man, who will hold his head up among my people" (172). Nwoye's father disowns him only because he chooses a path untraditional to his culture. The serious, frustrated, and unhappy mood that is created in Okonkwo's statement gives the reader an idea of how much the Ibo culture values tradition, choice, and family.

The novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, originally written in his native language Ibo, tells the tragic tale of an African pre-Christian tribe seen through the eyes of Okonkwo. Okonkwo became a very successful clan leader in his village, by working hard and refusing to be lazy like his father Unoka. Achebe uses irony to encourage character development, drive the contrast between Okonkwo’s dreams and his reality as others see him, and explain the culture’s beliefs in the way they treat women vs. the way women are revered.

As a beginning of this film, a myth is told by the Nyinba people of Nepal: a story of fearsome spirits thought to kill children and the weak. Their crime was adulterous passionate love and it was this that had condemned them to live eternally between life and death. In this film, we learn about and explore marriages in tribal societies. We can clearly identify the differences that challenge both side’s ideas and sensibilities about marriage bonds.

Nwoye Struggles with his identity and it has led him to embrace a new culture, which has Basically saved him, and shows the good effects colonialism can have on people.

It is always interesting to me to see what types of roles women play in popular books or novels of western history. The role of women in Things fall apart is more of a background story but their significance is deeply rooted in this book. Women play fundamental roles in education, religion and the social balance according to Achebe. In this paper, I am going to detail these roles giving references from Achebe’s Things Fall Apart Novel to show how significant they actually are. You will be surprised to learn that they are very significant indeed even in a traditional African culture which at the time was being polluted by colonialism and other western influences of demoralization and demonization through missionary works.

The world is full of cultural collisions. Every day people meet other with different worldviews. This concept of cultural collision, is shown perfectly though Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. In the story it is the cultural collision, of the introduction of Western Ideas into the ibo society, that causes Achebe’s characters to grow and change. One character in particular is forced to reevaluate his sense of identity because of the cultural collision. This is the character of Okonkwo. The collision challenges Okonkwo’s sense of self, as a religious leader or an Egwugwu, as a leader of his people, and as a man. It is Okonkwo’s response to these challenges, that shapes the meaning of the book of that as your world changes so must you or you

A young man from an Igbo village meets a young Ibibio woman in the city of Lagos, Nigeria. They have fallen in love and intend to marry. The young woman wants the young man to send a letter to his father telling him of their engagement. The young man is hesitant because he knows his father has already arranged for him to marry a young Igbo woman from his village, in accordance with traditional customs. Instead, he goes home to the village to inform his father in person.

The impact of Ikemefuna’s death on Nwoye is devastating. Something gives way inside of him when he thinks of his father and the killing of Ikemefuna. The fear of his father and the horror over the sacrifice of Ikemefuna separates Nwoye from tribal customs and the sense of community. His family’s banishment isolates him further. Hearing the Christian hymns, which cater to

Nnaemeka decides to tell his father about Nene when he gets home, after having spent 6 whole weeks with her in Lagos. Nene suggested him to write his father a letter, in which he could tell him about their relationship, but Nnaemeka respects his father too much to tell him by letter. (p.1 l.25).

Chinua Achebe’s novel “Things Fall Apart” chronicles the life of Okonkwo, a strong man whose existence is dominated by fear and anger, and the Ibo tribe, a people deeply rooted in cultural belief and tradition. As events unfold, Okonkwo’s carefully constructed world and the Ibo way of life collapses. The story of Okonkwo’s fall from a respected and feared leader of the Ibo tribe to an outcast who dies in disgrace dramatizes his inability to evolve beyond his personal beliefs, affecting the entire Ibo tribe beyond measure. The “things” that fall apart in Achebe’s novel are Okonkwo’s life – his ambition, dreams, family unity and material wealth – and the Ibo way of life – their beliefs, culture and values.