THINGS FALL APART: ANALYSIS

The Igbo society consider male as a dominant figure. Besides the society also emphasize on feminine. However, both masculine and feminine are interrelates to balance their daily life of the tribe. Discuss.           

             Masculinity and feminism are often defined as the traditional qualities of male and female, where male is brave and strong while female are soft and being famine. In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe both male and female are interrelates to balance their daily life of the tribe. In this novel Chinua Achebe presents his ideas about gender through their participation in a function, villages internal affairs and agriculture.

            Both male and female have different roles in conducting a function. Their chores are divided by their physical strength and the talents that describe their gender. Women normally cook while man prepares the ingredients for the food. For instance in this novel Chinua Achebe describes the duties of both genders in the thanks giving function held by Okonkwo to thank his relatives in Mbanta for helping him in his rainy days. Okonkwo’s third wife, Ekwefi harvest cassava tubers in her farm with her daughter Ezinma and Ojiugo’s daughter Obiageli. The other wives are in charge of other ingredients such as smoked fish, palm oil and pepper. Meanwhile Okonkwo prepared yams and meat for the function. In short both male and female have their own duties to do when they are conducting a function.

            Besides that male have clear responsibilities in the village’s internal affairs. Men have clear duties towards his village such as protecting his village, being a spokesperson of the village etc. but women in the other hand does not have any responsibilities to her village. Chinua Achebe fails to show the readers the duties of a woman to her village. A woman is only in charge of her children. In this novel Okonkwo have clear duties towards his village. He is the warrior of the village, the spokesperson and an elder in Umuofia. Women were considered as the assistants for man. For example, Chielo is a priestess of the village.

            Next, men were a dominant figure in the agriculture. The main source of food in Umuofia is yam and cultivating yams needs a lot of physical strength.  Thus the heavy work was lifted on the shoulders of man. In this novel women were only viewed as sub coordinates rather than equals in agriculture. Man does all the heavy work such as plowing the land and harvesting the yam. In this novel, the man who can harvest more yams are considered as masculine. That’s why the villagers respect Okonkwo as he works hard in his field.

            In a conclusion, Chinua Achebe succeeded in interrelate the duties of both male and female in different aspects.