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Things Fall Apart Gender Roles Quotes

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Gender norms are prominent throughout many cultures and societies because they define a set of guidelines on how a certain gender should act. Gender roles allow people to develop fixed identities and even feelings of superiority or inferiority over others. In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, the main character, Okonkwo is an ideal representation of what it means to be a “man” in Ibo society. Okonkwo’s continuous urge to fit under gender roles in society eventually lead up to internal dispute. In Things Fall Apart, the rigid gender roles that Ibo men are expected to conform to influences the collision between Ibo and Western culture. Expectations for men, such as Okonkwo, to display masculinity, the need to hold a superior reputation and eventually, …show more content…

High achievements, such as holding a title in the clan, is one way to increase one’s reputation. In one scene, Okonkwo disheartens a clansmen who opposes his ideas. “Without looking at the man Okonkwo had said: ‘This meeting is for men.’ The man who had contradicted him had no titles. That was why he had called him a woman. Okonkwo knew how to kill a man’s spirit” (Achebe 26). This quote illustrates how high reputation is of great importance in Ibo culture, especially for men. Since women are supposed to have an inferior reputation as opposed to men, being compared to a woman is considered highly offensive. In addition, Okonkwo displays arrogance because he holds such a well-respected rank in society. Given that, the characteristic of being arrogant and pretentious causes him to reject European religion altogether. Okonkwo takes pride in his Ibo culture which makes it difficult for him to tolerate other religions. Consequently, this also increases the clash between the two cultures.
Lastly, Okonkwo’s resistance to comply under the Europeans paves way for the collision between the two distinct cultures. In chapter eighteen, Okonkwo tries to convince the Mbanta men to step up and take action against the Europeans who were invading their

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