Things Fall Apart Women Essay

In the novel, “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe the Igbo tradition revolves around structured gender role. Everything essential of Igbo life is based on their gender, which throughout the novel it shows the role of women and the position they hold, from their role in the family household, also planting women crops, to bearing children. Although the women were claimed to be weaker and seemed to be treated as objects, in the Igbo culture the women still provided qualities that make them worthy.

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

During the course of the novel, it appears as though Achebe is prejudiced against women. However, in his crude remarks quoted in the novel by Okonkwo, Achebe is actually praising the female race. After Okonkwo accidentally kills a young boy, he is banished to his motherland. He takes this banishment as a direct insult to all of his values. During Okonwo's stay in Mbanta, one of his many wives has a child. Uchendu, Okonkwo's uncle, forces him to name the baby, Nneka- "Mother is Supreme." When Okonkwo refuses to call his baby a name that contradicts his strongest beliefs, he laughs out loud and asks why anyone would say, "the mother is supreme." Uchedu explains something that makes Okonkwo have more appreciation for his home in Mbanta. Uchendu states:

Women are often thought of as the weaker, more vulnerable of the two sexes. Thus, women’s roles in literature are often subdued and subordinate. In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, women are repressed by an entrenched structure of the social repression. Women suffer great losses in this novel but, also in certain circumstances, hold tremendous power. Achebe provides progressively changing attitudes towards women’s role. At first glance, the women in Things Fall Apart may seem to be an oppressed group with little power and this characterization is true to some extent. However, this characterization of Igbo women reveals itself to be prematurely simplistic as well as limiting, once

The book “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe is a fictional look at the social and cultural life of an African tribe of the lower Niger River region. It depicts the every day life of the tribe and its members. It also shows the culture and customs of the tribe.

Things Fall Apart is a literary novel written and published by Albert Chinualumogu Achebe, or Chinua Achebe, in the 1959. Chinua was born on November 16, 1930 into a Nigerian village named Ogidi. Things Fall Apart is based in Nigeria around the year 1890. The book addresses topics including, “Nigeria’s white colonial government and the traditional culture of the indigenous Igbo people” (SparkNotes Editors). The book also contains several controversial topics involving, Christian missionaries being labeled, “foolish”, the subject matter of death and suicide, and the physical and verbal abuse that the women received. Chinua well portrays the “macho” and chiefly attitude of the African men in the Ibo society. But the question is, how exactly are women treated within the society? The well respected Okonkwo is a prime example on exactly how men treated women during this time period.

Even though women are viewed as the weaker sex, they are also praised for their ability to bring children into the world. The woman is also the one that someone goes to when life is not going as planned. In the story Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe portrays the ruthless lives of women under the social class in the Igbo tribe and the true source of strength they have in their families. In the Igbo tribe, one’s title also had to do with your social class.

Most Native American cultures give women the highest regards and utmost respect. In many modern works of literature, women are not only independent, but often become the heroes of the story. However, were one to look to novels such as Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, which depicts the African Ibo society, where women’s role are little better than the Greeks. Women were to submit to their husbands, bear their children, and little else. Some cultures, such as many Latin American works of literature, do not have a clearly defined role for a woman. Instead a woman filled the role necessary to progress the

The novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, can be viewed or depicted in many different ways depending on the reader. The novel takes place during the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century in a village named Umuofia, Nigeria. The timing is important to the setting because during this period in colonial history, Britain was trying to modernize and increase economic, cultural, and political influence in Africa. In Things Fall Apart women are viewed as weak and oppressed, and women are continually given bad connotations, while the men are viewed as superior. I will explain how a feminist will feel while reading this novel by pointing out key parts of women's oppression and how a misogynist will feel reading this book as well.

The women in the book Things Fall Apart are terribly mistreated and also they are viewed as weak they receive little to no respect outside as a mother and a wife.The people in the tribe of Umuofia and the people of the society which are called Igbo use a word called “Agbala” which means that whenever a person is called Agbala he is compared to a woman who is weak and worthless and has no respect. An example is when Okonkwo went with the other men in the tribe to participate in the killing of Ikemefuna (Who is a fifteen-year-old boy from another clan that is called Mbaino he was given up to Umuofia as a sacrifice for someone killing one of the women of Umuofia). Okonkwo participated in order to show the people that he is

But Chielo ignored what he was trying to say and went on shouting that Agbala wanted to see his daughter. ‘Beware, Okonkwo!’ she warned” (Chapter 11 pg 89). This is the first time that Okonkwo “plead” with anyone, male or female, for anything because he didn’t want to seem weak. However, we see a woman ordering Okonkwo to give her his daughter, but threatening him as well.

In the novel, Things Fall Apart we see that the men and women are viewed differently. The men are considered strong and head of the household and is considered of high status based upon his crops and how many wives he has. As for the women, all but the priestess is considered property and is expected to have one husband and to care for his children and cook every meal and serve him.

The novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a commanding account about the rise and fall of an African tribe. The powerful narrative depicts the life and customs of the people and how they change through the years. Theere are many different ideas and characters that are preseneted throughout the novel. The depiction of women is one aspect that is of extreme relevance. It can be shown through several passages in the novel that the women are actually the unseen power behind the mighty Umofian tribe.

More than those of any other African writer, Chinua Achebe’s writings have helped to develop what is known as African literature today. And the single book which has helped him to launch his "revolution" is the classic, Things Fall Apart.  The focus of this essay includes: 1) Achebe's portraiture of women in his fictional universe, the existing sociocultural situation of the period he is depicting, and the factors in it that condition male attitudes towards women; 2) the consequences of the absence of a moderating female principle in his fictions; 3) Achebe's progressively changing attitude towards women s roles; and 4) feminist prospects for African women. In the context of this study, the Igbo people whom Achebe describes will

Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is a modern example of postcolonial literature and is one of the most influential pieces of its genre. Postcolonial writing presents important themes and lessons of justice, equality, and freedom that can be applied to present times. It reminds us of how important our freedoms are and why we need to protect them. The colonized write about their exploitation and show how there is persecution in their colonized society. Postcolonial authors use specific methods to undermine their colonizers and reveal their backward logic. Things Fall Apart has various examples of meta-narrative, decolonization struggles, and colonial discourse worked in throughout the novel. Chinua Achebe’s writing styles showcase these techniques to subvert his European colonizers.