Gender Complications In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

Imagine a society in which it is acceptable for men to treat women as their inferior. The way that women were treated as inferiors in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe helps the reader to understand Ibo society and men’s accepted superiority within the society. In Things Fall Apart, women’s role in Ibo society is crucial to the society, understanding it and grasping the men’s behavior as the superior sex. The preconceived idea that women are weak, the women’s responsibilities and the women being treated as objects will help the reader to make sense of the gender complications within this novel. In order to understand the male supremacy in this book, the reader must first understand that women in the Ibo society were predetermined as the inferior sex. Men being more desirable, women being forbidden from adding their own input or opinions on certain topics and the shame that came with an type of feminine behavior shows this. Okonkwo muses in his mind while he thinks of his daughter: “If Ezinma would have been a boy, I would have been happier” (Achebe 66). Okonkwo wishing that his daughter had been born as a boy shows how much more valuable men are in this society as opposed to women. Okonkwo did have a son named Nwoye, however he found Nwoye to not be masculine enough. He believed that Ezinma had more useful, desirable male-oriented qualities and is disappointed that she is a female. Women’s compliancy to do what they are told is shown within this quote: “They scrubbed and painted the inside walls underneath the supervision of men. If they imagined what was inside, they kept their imagination to themselves. No woman ever asked questions about the most important cult” (Achebe 88). The clan’s ancestral spirits, known as the egwugwu, emerged from the building that the women are tending to within this quote. Though women were expected to clean this house, they are not even allowed to know what happens on the interior of this building. This shows very blatantly that women are not given an equal amount of respect as men. Thinking of his father, Nwoye internally scolds himself for enjoying the stories told by women: “But he knew that those stories were for foolish children and women, and he knew that his father wanted him to be a man” (Achebe 54). This quote is discernible proof that there is negative stigma associated with anything that a woman may appreciate or enjoy. As they are labeled as “foolish”, women are on the same rank as children. Men would tell stories of strength, war and violence, so men must appreciate those stories rather than the more pleasant stories that women tell. It is shameful for a man to not be war oriented, or to be woman-like in any way. In this novel, women take on the responsibilities assigned to them by men, and these responsibilities are confined very strictly to women, similar to how men’s responsibilities would be confined to only men. However, a woman’s roles within this novel are never regarded as equivalent to a man’s. Ekewefi …show more content…
Women’s essential role within Things Fall Apart can really assist the reader while trying to make sense of gender complications. Women being weaker than men by default, women’s inferior responsibilities and women being blatantly objectified are details that show how vital women’s role is. Women’s responsibilities are not equivalent to men, and are not disputable. Their responsibilities include caring for children, cooking and cleaning. Women were considered lesser than men, and this is shown by the shame associated with being female, women not being allowed to add input and that women/girls are foolish. Finally, women being used as objects is shown by their submissiveness, the importance of their fertility and abuse aimed solely at them. The Ibo society treats women as being inferior to men. Perhaps the reasoning behind this must be explored, before assuming that men are plainly cruel. The people of the Ibo society conform to the culture, and shouldn’t be blamed for the system they live by. Women are weaker by default, and that is customary for Ibo people, whether or not it is morally correct in our