Essay on the Role of Women in Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart

The bureau of Women in Things autumn apart Chinua Achebes Things happen Apart explores the struggle between old traditions within the Igbo community as well as Christianity and the second coming it brings forth. While on the surface, it appears the refreshing narrows its concentre to a single character, Okonkno and his inner battles, one can immortalize deeper into the school text and find an array of assorted conflicts in the realm on human vs. human, human vs. nature, human vs. parliamentary procedure, and society vs. society. For the purposes of this paper I shall focus on the labyrinth of human vs. human and human vs. society in the framework of the role of women in Igbo society and how men assign and consecrate these roles. I will also briefly explain the importance of women in terms of motherhood and wifedom. Throughout my research Ive encountered numerous papers on the rights women do have in Igbo society, on the importance of women in this society. They web site the role of widows in Igbo society as well as the treasure given to the first wife as proof that while this society is not an ideal situation for women, it is hardly the misogynist society that almost make it out to be. I passionately disagree. It is obvious to me that to the characters in Things Fall Apart, women are things to be exploited, abused and to serve as second-class citizens to the outrank of male privilege. The theme of misogyny runs rampant throughout the text whether it is undetermined by the absence of women in the text, the abuses women suffer at the hands of men, or the subtle ways in which society dictates and reinforces these negative statuses and images of women. Throughout the text women are virtually invisible and live their lives on the sidelines it is clear from a close read... ...p but be sickened and saddened by not only the domain of women in Africa but of Achebes portrayal of it. Works Cited Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. London William Hei nemann Ltd., 1958. Chun, June. The Role of Women in Things Fall Apart 1990 October 1999 Jeyifo, Biodun. Okonkwo and his Mother Things Fall Apart and Issues of Gender in the Constitution of African Postcolonial Discourse Callaloo Fall 1993 Mezu, Rose Ure. Women in Achebes humankind throttle/Summer 1995. October 1999 Osei-Nyame, Kwadwo. Chinua Achebe Writing Culture Representations of Gender and Tyranny in Things Fall Apart Research in African Literatures Summer 1999. Sengovaa, Joko. endemic Identity and Alienation in Richard Wrights Native Son and Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart A Cross Cultural Analysis The Mississippi Quarterly Spring 1997.