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What Is The Treatment Of Women In Things Fall Apart

Decent Essays
Women are not treated the same as men. The book Things Fall Apart, is a work of fiction by Chinua Achebe, it takes place in the Nigerian village of Umuofia in the late 1880’s. It follows the protagonist, Okonkwo through his times of tribulation. Throughout Africa in the 20th century, women were not treated the same as men, the novel depicts that it is anti-feminist because, everything is gendered, women are treated as property instead of people, and women are made to act a certain way.
Everything is the novel Things Fall Apart is gendered. When the narrator states, “His mother and sisters worked hard enough, but they grew women’s crops, like coco-yams, beans and cassava. Yam, the king of crops, was a man’s crop” (19), the narrator states
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The narrator states,“The law of Umuofia is that if a woman runs away from her husband her bride-price is returned” (81).This shows that if a woman of Umuofia leaves the village, the price that was paid for the woman could be refunded to the man like a piece of property. When Obierika states, “My daughter's suitor is coming today and I hope we will clinch the matter of the bride-price”(57), it proves that a woman’s can be negotiable, and that they are looked as property and not women. In Things Fall Apart, women are made to act and dress a certain way in the Igbo society. When Okonkwo states, “Sit like a woman!” (38), it proves that a woman has to sit a certain way, and will be called out for not doing what she is told. Women in the Igbo society are also made to wear ankle bracelets or plates to attract men. The Igbo’s make women act and dress a certain way, so the men are the most important people in the family. In some places around the world, women are treated different from men. In the Igbo society women, are treated like pieces of property and not humans, they are made to act and dress a certain way, and everything in their society is gendered. This relates to women in the world now. Today, women are standing up, and being treated equally. In the Igbo society, women did not stand up for their beliefs because, they would not be treated equally
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