Changing Gender Roles in Things Fall Apart - Book Report/Review Example

Changing Gender Roles in “Things Fall Apart” In Chinua Achebe’s book “Things Fall Apart” , there is a clear distinction in society between men and women. Ibo culture prescribed clearly demarcated roles for men and women, but these cultural divisions began to blur with the entry of white missionaries, who began to make inroads into Ibo culture by superimposing their own. The strong males of Ibo culture are fearful of the white men while the hitherto submissive women are brave enough to interact with them, bringing about a change in the traditional power balances of Ibo society. In his novel Achebe presents a picture of two rival cultures, one that is clan oriented with women regarded as subservient and one that is individual oriented where women are regarded as equals; when the two come into conflict, things fall apart. Women are prescribed within certain distinct roles in Ibo culture, even in planting and harvesting of “women’s crops like coco-yams, beans and cassava. Yam, the king of crops, was a man’s crop” (Achebe 16) because it was a more difficult and painstaking job to grow them successfully. Only men were allowed to grow yams and a man’s wealth was measured by his land, his yams and yam seed – the yam was the outward expression of social power and manhood. Okonkwo had established his manhood by rising from poverty to become one of the lords of the clan. When he was contradicted by another man at a meeting, Okonkwo did not even look at him as he declared that the meeting was for men. By implying that he was equivalent to a woman because he had earned no titles, Achebe states that “Okonkwo knew how to kill a man’s spirit.” (Achebe 19), since women occupied a subservient place in Ibo culture. Gender roles were standardized in Ibo culture, with men and women relegated to performing specific duties. Manhood in Ibo culture, was equated to hard work, self sufficiency and strength, hence Okinkwo showed no affection for Ikemefuna despite becoming fond of him, unhesitantly killing the boy he had grown so fond of. A man was expected to exercise power and control over his family in Ibo culture. As per the view of Okinkwo, the quintessential male in the novel, “No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his wife and his children (and especially his women) he was not really a man”. (Achebe 39). In the novel, Okinkwo demonstrated this power and strength on many occasions, notably on the occasion when he beat his youngest wife, Ojuiguo, for not returning from a neighbor’s house in time to serve him his meal. Despite his other two wives pleading in alarm that it was the Week of Peace where the goddess of the harvest was propitiated, “Okonkwo was not the man to stop beating somebody half-way through, not even for fear of a goddess.”(Achebe 21). The committing of a crime was also classified as male or female and punishment determined accordingly. For example, when Okinkwo finished the killing of Ikemefuna, it was regarded as a heroic, male act because it carried through a prescribed punishment; hence it was deserving of praise. On the other hand, when he killed Ezedu’s son, the crime was not deliberate and was therefore not equated to a male crime which would have deserved death. Since it happened when his gun inadvertently went off, it was a female crime; he was exiled and could return to the clan after seven years. The gender distinctions were even evident in the kinds of stories that men and women told. Stories were the very foundation of Ibo culture; as Achebe states: “Among the Ibo, the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm oil with which words are eaten.” (Achebe 5). While Okonkwo told his son Nwoye and Ikemefuna masculine tales of violence and bloodshed, their mother shared softer stories with them, such as why mosquitoes like to bite ears, which were relegated to the status of stories for fools and children. Nwoye however, despite being male, preferred the stories his mother told him and hated his father, which formed the basis for his easy acceptance of the culture of the whites over his own. Okonkwo has finished the botched killing of Ikemefuna whom Nwoye loved dearly and the Christian religion offered him a way to come to terms with his feelings of guilt and pain. The distinct, demarcations in gender roles ascribed to men and women in Ibo culture began to blur and change when the white men arrive in Umofia. Since women played a central role in trading of agricultural commodities, they had more direct contact with the foreign missionaries. In the wake of this more important role they assumed after the arrival of the white missionaries, the position of women in Obo society also began to improve they commanded higher levels of respect and began to assert their ideas and opinions in contravention to the established power structure of Ibo society that rested in elder males. The most powerful symbols of Ibo society were its goddesses and the women priestesses who served them had the power to shout at powerful men like Okonkwo. But the largely marginalized status of ordinary women in Ibo society plays a significant role in Achebe’s novel, leading them to assert themselves when the white missionaries arrive. The roles are reversed when the men become fearful in the face of the invading Europeans and the women boldly go forward to interact and trade with them. The strength of women is recognized later in the novel when Okonkwo in exile is told that “a woman has a life giving power that is to be revered on some level; this is why Mother is Supreme.” (Achebe 88-89). Since Okinkwo stayed in exile for seven years, he was shocked at the gender transformation that had taken place when he returned. In noting the growing power and status of women in Ibo society, Okinkwo remarked that the white men had “put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.” (Achebe, 118-119). The immutable gender roles that had existed in Ibo society were no longer the norm, because women now played the more assertive role as compared to men; they had greater power because of their fearless contact with the white missionaries. They were displaying all the characteristics that spelt manhood in Ibo society – fearlessness, strength, hard work and self sufficiency. The men on the other hand, holding back in fear and unable to interact effectively with the white men, were placed in a more subservient position. The outward growing power of women and their changing role in Ibo society with the coming of the white man was subtly acknowledged in the novel, through the adjustments that the lead character of Okonkwo had to make. When sent away in exile, Okonkwo’s uncle Uchendu explained to him that in times of “sorrow and bitterness”, a man “finds refuge in his motherland. Your mother is there to protect you.” (Achebe 88). Men assumed the dominant, protective role in the clan based Ibo society, which had resulted in women living on its fringes. During the climate of oppression and conflict that characterized the white man’s entry into Umofia, the roles were reversed and the women became the protectors, aiding the Ibo clan in its association with the white missionaries. The clash of the two cultures thus resulted not only in more assertive roles for the women of Umofia, but also an underlying acknowledgement among the men of the protective power of women The underlying power of the female, which was only indirectly recognized at the beginning of the novel through the representation of female goddesses and their priestesses, is more overtly recognized towards the end of the novel, when women become the dominant trading partners of the white men. The entry of the white missionaries and the introduction of the white man’s religion changes the rules of family, religion and structure upon which the Ibo culture is founded. With its emphasis on the individual rather than the obedience to the clan, the white man’s religion and way of life change the role of women in Ibo culture in such a powerful way that it can never return to what it once was. Works cited: * Achebe, Chinua. “Things Fall Apart”, Heinemann Read More