“Things Fall Apart” is a sorrowful narrative focusing on a man’s fight with failure, masculinity loss, and vulnerability. Okwonko, the protagonist, is continuously trying to establish his manhood by engaging in pointless acts of aggressiveness and violence since he despises indicators of vulnerability and femininity. The role of women in the novel, nevertheless, is more nuanced than Okwonkos’ mistaken ideas on life would imply. While women are perceived as subordinate in certain aspects, additional investigation reveals a significant gender role disparity that reflects itself in the tale. Women are seen negatively and positively as a result of this discrepancy.
The distinction between men and women in Umuofia is clear throughout the novel. A woman’s role includes, but is not limited to, childbearing, caring for her husband’s children, and household chores such as cleaning and cooking. Men were supposed to engage in activities that society considered manlier, such as wrestling and fighting in battle. The pressure placed on people by society to fit these roles as tightly as they can is evident across the novel, not only via Okwonkwo. His son Nwoye’s determination to compel himself to like his father’s combat stories is another evidence of this. Yet, the thought of these limits to gender being violated was not just frowned upon; in the case of women, it was unusual and unimaginable. Okwonko’s daughter Ezinma is one such case. Okwonko often professes his wish for Ezinma to be a male across the novel, owing to her behavior and toughness reflecting a more masculine aspect. He never nonetheless considers treating her like a son and interacting with her like a son. Probably if he had permitted her to do activities that were traditionally designated for males, such as hunt, they might have gotten greater mileage out of their connection. But such a concept never comes to him since a woman breaking the gender role line is unthinkable in this society, just as an Umuofian male cooking or cleaning the house is unthinkable. Okwonko takes this to new levels when he murders Ikemefuna needlessly, then psychologically critiques himself for feeling sorrow for his acts, and even wonders when he became a woman.
While the gender role gap appears to be dual, since males cannot perform feminine things, women are nevertheless seen subserviently in society in some aspects. For one reason, with an exemption of the week of peace, woman beating is legal in Umuofia. This might be because males are seen as aggressive characters, and the beating helps them to demonstrate their aggression while asserting power in the partnership. This would imply that wife beating occurs naturally to males as men must be forceful and women have to submit to their spouses’ demands. There are nevertheless additional instances in which women are portrayed to be obedient to males, such as how men can have several spouses but women are limited to one. When Ezinma’s mother fell in love with Okwonkwo, she was compelled to leave her old husband and go to his house, which is acceptable because it was her own choice, unless you consider Okwonkwo had eight wives. He was able to have eight different wives and father thirteen kids, but his wives were restricted to him and him alone, demonstrating a major double standard in Umuofian culture that unfairly treats women.
Despite the unequal treatment of Umuofian women, they are treated with some respect. Although women are highly constrained to the roles that society assigns to them, they are praised for completing these duties. Giving birth is undoubtedly the most treasured deed a woman can perform in Umuofia, and it is treated with tremendous reverence. Motherhood is an additional attribute that women are praised for after childbirth. No sentence in the novel confirms this notion more than when Uchendu informs Okwonkwo that “Mother is Supreme” after being banished from Umuofia for accidentally murdering one of his fellow clansmen. It is mentioned how, while a guy earns a name on his own and establishes an image in his fatherland, and remains there whenever life is good, he flees to his motherland when life gets difficult. He then gives another example to show how a mother might provide refuge: “It is true that a child belongs to its father. When a father beats his child, the child seeks solace in its mother’s hut” (Achebe, 2021). A mother is the best source of security in Umuofian culture, and Uchendu mocks Okwonkwo for not comprehending this when he first gets into his country.
Chinua Achebe’s depiction of how women integrate into Umuofian society in “Things Fall Apart” is reasonably accurate to how women fit into the social context on which the narrative is based. The plot revolved around the Igbo people, a major ethnic group that lives in Nigeria’s southeastern area. Women in Igbo society exist in a manner that’s comparable to Umuofians in that they, too, perform gender-specific responsibilities. A woman cannot acquire social respect in Igbo society unless she produces a kid. Motherhood is celebrated in the same way that it is in Umuofia, and in Igbo culture, it serves as an armor against societal reproach. In the Igbo culture, yet, just motherhood is insufficient. An adult woman is deemed childless until she has a son. Daughters are seen as insignificant and are taught expressly to assume the household responsibilities that their mothers once filled. In addition, a woman can’t imagine herself set in her husband’s home until she bears a male successor to the household. Probably the one point Achebe overlooked was how insignificant female children are valued in a culture like this. The major cause for this was probably Okwonkwo’s connection with his daughter Ezinma. We couldn’t gain a more comprehensive picture of how female children are regarded in Umuofian society because Okwonkwo adored Ezinma more than any of his other kids.
Ultimately, “Things Fall Apart” demonstrates how women had a special role in the community of Umuofia. They weren’t anticipated to move outside of their function, as such a concept could not even occur to the Umuofians. Motherhood was regarded as a condition of greatness among women because it offered them a kind of strength that men did not have: the capacity to be the greatest defender in times of adversity, as Okwonkwo can witness. While Achebe’s story effectively portrays Umuofia based on the Igbo people, he falls short in describing the struggle of the female child, since Okwonkwo has a too close connection with his little girl. This has been done for the reader’s advantage, since we’d want to trust that the protagonist of the narrative had feelings, in contrast to the cold-hearted Igbo men who forsake their daughters altogether.
Reference
Chinua, A. (2021). Things fall apart.
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