Sexism In Things Fall Apart

Throughout the book, he continually goes on about how “womanly” certain things are. His emotions about killing Ikemefuna are a result of him becoming a woman. As portrayed in this instance, “‘How can a man who has killed five men in battle fall to pieces because he has added a boy to their number? Okonkwo, you have become a woman indeed.’” (Achebe 65) He thinks that feeling sorrow over Ikemefuna’s death is womanlike, and not to be tolerated because he is a strong person; a man. When the royal python is killed, the clan has a meeting to discuss the Christian convert’s punishment. The clan decides to leave the god to deal with the man, and that their only action would to be to ostracize the Christians. Okonkwo is disgusted by their decision, his opinions made obvious by, “This is a womanly clan, he thought. Such a thing could never happen in his fatherland, Umuofia.” (Achebe 159) Regarding his exile to his motherland, he says he regrets every day of the seven years. Okonkwo sees those years as a waste. Shown here, “Although he prospered in his motherland Okonkwo knew that he would have prospered even more in Umuofia, in the land of his fathers where men were bold and warlike. In these seven years he would have he would have climbed to the utmost heights. And so he regretted every day of his exile.” (Achebe 162) His fatherland is a more masculine environment, ergo he views it as better than Mbanta. In a similar

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:

Achebe utilizes Okonkwo as morally ambiguous to illustrate an internal battle between good and evil through his brutal actions. Okonkwo beats on his second wife, Ekwefi, when she fails to tell him about leaving their hut; he even threatens to kill her with his gun. The reader can deduce Okonkwo feels justified in his actions because he always thought of the male race as superior and as a disciplinary force. The author chooses to make Okonkwo beat his wife because while Okonkwo was not motivated to abuse his wife by anger, he was motivated to show him as being the head of the household; the man running the show. This connects back to the theme because it was good Okonkwo was taking on the role of being the head, acceptable by his community and time period, yet his methods would be looked down upon by modern day

Okonkwo thought of himself as masculine, not feminine. He tried everything he needed to to not become just like his father. When he put that as his priority. He started to provide for his family materially and lovingly. He also became heroic. As a result of everything that he did, he became very wealthy, hold a high-ranked and trusted position in his community, has 3 wives. He also presented himself as strong as a warrior and also a

There are many phrases within this novel and within today’s society that are used to degrade a man’s ego. The similarities are resorting to some form of femininity one is displaying. “That was why he had called him a woman. Okonkwo knew how to kill a man’s spirit” (Achebe 32). This quote emphasizes on the word, “woman” in the degradation of “a man’s spirit,” and quite frankly in modern America, the phrase such as, “stop acting like a girl,” is used often as a form of a male not obtaining enough manliness in a situation. Later on in the novel Okonkwo believe that though his strength seems up to

Okonkwo victimizes his family due to his sexism. Okonkwo’s actions and thoughts signifies his idea that men and women are not equal. Throughout the plot he berates his daughter, Ezinma, concerning her gender. Since she is not the son he wishes for he continually abuses her into acting more feminine. When Okonkwo summons Ezinma to his hut and as she sits down “‘Sit like a woman!’ Okonkwo [shouts] at her,” (Achebe 44). Okonkwo forces Ezinma to cook and care for him and usually shows no affection towards her. Okonkwo’s victimization causes Ezinma to feel unwanted and unable to make Okonkwo happy. Yelling to Ezinma and trying to teach her what he wants from her conflicts what she hears her father tell Nwoye. Okonkwo tells Nwoye to become stronger and focus on

“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 no title.”

He was afraid of being thought weak”(Achebe 61). Moreover, Okonkwo eventually takes his own life for the sake of masculinity: “Then they came to the tree from which Okonkwo’s body was dangling, and they stopped dead”(Achebe 207). Okonkwo was a man who loved his village, and respected within it, however, he could not stand to see the people in the village become “feminine,” and weak after being taken control of by the

“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.” This quote, taken from Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart” (1959), depicts almost the whole idea of gender roles in the entire book. Women are weak, men are strong. A man with no power is called a woman.

One quotation that expresses Okonkwo’s view of manliness states Okonkwo “was always happy when he heard [Nwoye] grumbling about women. That showed that in time he would be able to control his womenfolk” (53). This quotation shows that Oknonkwo feels pleasure when his son displays signs of power, such as the control of the perceived weaker gender. Ergo, Okonkwo views the subordination of others by his son as an example of “masculinity.” This idea is further supported by the quotation: “No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children… he was not really a man” (53). Oknonkwo clearly considers utter authority of one’s nuclear family as a prerequisite to meet “manhood.” He literally states that a man without patriarchy in his family is not a man. Therefore, when Nwoye displays the early signs of this dominance, like the grumbling about his subordinate women’s issues, Okonkwo is finally considering his son “masculine” as shown by his happiness.

He often "wish[es] she [Ezinma] were a boy."(122) For his son, "he wanted Nwoye to grow into a tough young man capable of ruling his... household." (37) The failure of his son to live up to Okonkwo's expectations for him are another factor in Okonkwo's own innate need to be exceptionally masculine.

Throughout the novel, Okonkwo frequently subjugates the women in his life, beats his wives, and shows that he does not think very highly of the female gender. When a man contradicts him in a meeting, he snaps back saying, “this meeting is for men”, (Achebe 26) implying that in his mind being called a “woman” is a nasty insult. In fact, when Okonkwo feels guilty for killing his adopted son, he attributes his emotions to weakness that is typical of femininity and says to himself, “when did you become a shivering, old woman?” (Achebe 65). This shows that Okonkwo views women as incapable of so called “masculine” strengths and powers.

The omniscient narrator acknowledges a near-invisibility of women in Things Fall Apart. Describing a communal ceremony, he confesses, "It was clear from the way the crowd stood that the ceremony was for men. There were many women, but they looked on from the fringe like outsiders"(pg.77). They are not invited to stay when men are engaged in any discussion; they are not included in council of war; they do not form part of the masquerades representing the judiciary and ancestral spirits. Okonkwo views women AS weak and foolish. He has a different expectation for men and women. This can be clearly SEEN by the way that he raises his children. He tries his best to train Nwoye to be strong and brave while he feels sorry that Ezinma is a girl. Okonkwo knows that "Ezinma has the right spirit", but he does not try to make her TOO be brave or TOO strong. He favors her the most out

In addition, it is an insult to a man or boy if they possess any female qualities. Guilt ridden after murdering Ikemefuna, his surrogate son, Okonkwo sternly reprimands himself not to “become like a shivering old woman” – this he considers the worst insult (65). Okonkwo also relates negatively to his oldest son Nwoye, who according to Okonkwo possess weak qualities and thus acts like a woman. He wanted Nwoye to listen to “masculine stories of violence and bloodshed” rather than the stories told by women which were for “foolish women and children” (54). The stories that men told were about bravery and war and young men were expected to listen to this instead of fairy tales that women told. “So Okonkwo encouraged the boys to sit with him in his obi, and he told them stories of the land” – while Nwoye feigned that he liked the stories his father told him to make him a man, he preferred his mother’s that he heard while growing up that kept his spirit gentle.

When Okonkwo discovers that Nwoye has found a new faith in Christianity, he claims that Nwoye is a woman and not a man nor his own son and addresses that Nwoye is effeminate and degenerate (Achebe 153). These gender roles for men are problematic because it implies that the men in Okonkwo’s life cannot stray away from highly masculine tendencies or else he will be ostracized or beaten. Feminist theory is applicable to this certain situation because Okonkwo perpetuates the male gender role for his son when Nwoye wishes to break from the roles.