Gender Roles In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

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In the novel “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe, the Ibo society used a system that limits the power of women. In the Ibo society the men were the superior sex , and that concept was preached generation to generation . The men ruled everything and their wives had certain jobs everyday. were disciplined for breaking rules, basically they were slaves with fifty percent of their freedom. Those customs represent how Nigerian societies were managed in pre-colonial Nigeria. In “ Things Fall Apart” Chinua Achebe used the gender roles to characterize Okonkwo, and to emphasize the role of men and women in the Ibo society . Chinua Achebe used Okonkwo's father to teach Okonkwo what type of men are accepted and praised in the village. When Achebe…show more content…
Chinua Achebe used Okonkwo’s wife Ojiugo to accentuate the role of the women . Achebe described Okonkwo’s actions around the house as he waited for his wife to return then he said “ And when she returned he beat her heavily .In his anger he had forgotten that it was the week of peace” (Achebe 29-30). Okonkwo did not care that it was the week of peace. He wanted to enforce his rules as a man. Also, Okonkwo wanted his wife Ojiuago to know her role as a women and as his wife. A woman’s job in the Ibo society was to take care of their children, cook for their husband and to clean and take care of the grounds and houses. Okonkwo went to far with his actions during the week of peace. No man should rise above the rules of society just to discipline his wife. Okonkwo’s ego is going to cause him to lose his popularity in the Ibo…show more content…
Okonkwo was the complete opposite of his father , and his father is the reason Okonkwo is so masculine. As Achebe spoke about Okonkwo’s thoughts about his father he said “ Even as a little boy he had resented his father’s failure and weakness, and even now he still remembered how he had suffered when a playmate had told him that his father was agbala. That was how Okonkwo first came to know that agbala was not only another name for a woman, it could also mean a man who had taken to title (Achebe 12).In Igbo culture, women are considered weaker than the men and thus it’s an insult to men to be called an agbala. Okonkwo is acutely aware of what it means to be a man in the Igbo tribe and is ashamed that his father was considered to be a agbala. Okonkwo wanted the tribe to know he was nothing like his father . Okonkwo became so masculine because he was afraid of becoming a agbala like his father
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