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Gender Roles in Things Fall Apart

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In Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart, the Ibo society has a strict system of behavioral customs that are assigned by gender. These customs restrict the freedom of Ibo woman and help to reinforce generation after generation the notion that Ibo men are superior to women. In Achebe's essay An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness, he claims that Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, despite it's insights, ought to be eradicated from literature as an appropriate piece of work on the argument that it is racist. Achebe focuses on gender roles and avoiding stereotypes to dismiss the racist attitude towards Africans in his novel by bringing the reader down to the level of his unbiased narration of a historical fiction novel. …show more content…

In Ibo society, women marry to add to their father's wealth, become subservient to their husbands, continue on their husband's legacy through child birth and emanate the essence that women know the secret of life, since they are the source of it. This is evident when Uchendu ask “Can you tell me, Okonkwo, why it is that one of the commonest names

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