Gender Relations in Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart Essay -- Things

grammatical gender Relations in Chinua Achebes Things Fall aside In Chinua Achebes novel Things Fall Apart, the Ibo peoples patriarchal society has a unbending system of behavioral customs according to gender. These customs potently specify the freedom of Ibo women and help to reinforce generation after generation the purpose that Ibo men are superior to the women of their tribe. Among the people of this society, the condition of weakness is strongly associated with the state of being female. The worst offend that a man fire receive is to be called a char. The novels main character, Okonkwo, is often obsessed with proving his power as a man because he seeks to escape the reputation of his arrive who was considered by his fellow clansmen to be weak like a woman. He is ashamed when he learns that agbala was not only another name for woman, it could alike mean a man who had taken no title when this insult is applied to his father. Okonkwo takes the insecurity of his manlines s to extremes, and even unnecessarily kills the adopted watchword whom he loves deeply in order to prove his unwavering frantic fortitude. Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his machet and cut him down. He was afraid of being prospect weak.(43) In Ibo culture, it is practically a disgrace to be born a female. This attitude is apparent in considering the emphasis placed on women to continue sons in order to carry on the honor of the family. When a woman had borne her third son in succession, her husband slaughtered a goat for her, as was the custom.(56) A woman is honored only if she could bear... sons(82) to carry on a great familys name and honor. Okonkwo is greatly disappointed by the tendencies of his offspring in their gender roles. H... ... physical power that they can exercise. Although this oppression is deplorable from a modern North American standpoint, from the point of view of the Ibo women of this period it is quite a acceptable and none of them feel any necessity to change their friendly system. Works Cited Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. 1958. The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces, Expanded Edition, Vol. 1. Ed. Maynard Mack. London Norton, 1995. Mohanty, Chandra Talpade. Under western sandwich Eyes Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourse. Feminist Review. 30 (Autumn 1988) 65-88. Nnaemeka, Obioma. Gender Relations and Critical Meditation From Things Fall Apart to Anthills of the Savannah. Challenging Hierarchies Issues and Themes In Colonial and Post colonial African Literature. Society and Politics in Africa. Vol 5. New York Peter Lang Publishing, 1998. 137-160.