Rupal Arora
Professor Shweta Sachdeva
BA English (Hons)
2017/1404
05 March 2020
THINGS FALL APART
-CHINUA ACHEBE
Women are absent from power and are silenced in Things Fall Apart
Chinua Achebe (16th November 1930 – 21st March 2013) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor
and critic. His first novel, Things Fall Apart is considered as a masterpiece and is the most widely
read. Being a Igbo chief himself, Achebe’s novel focuses on Igbo’s culture, society and the effect
of Christian influences and the clash of Western and African values during the colonial era.
Things Fall Apart was first published in 1958 – two years before Nigeria gained its independence.
The novel takes its title from Yeats’s poem “The Second Coming”. Through the novel, Achebe’s
main purpose was to present a complex, dynamic society to the western society who looked at
African society as primitive, simple and backward because Achebe believed otherwise, Africa’s
story will always be untold.
The text can conveniently be read as an anti-feminist” novel by the way not just the protagonist, but
every male character treats women. Throughout the novel, the women have been portrayed as the
weaker sex and being feminine has been looked down upon. It was in the 19 th century that women
Nigeria were socialized to fill only a few specific roles in society, their roles were often
complementary to men and believed to be the helpers for them. Women were expected to be in the
background whilst all the credits were taken by their husbands or fathers. Husbands were also
believed to be head of the family and their status was defined by the number of wives he has, size
of his barn and the title he has taken. However, women in these societies did not necessarily view
themselves as the victim of patriarchy.
The protagonist of the novel, Okonkwo has been shown to be a brutal and harsh husband who does
not show his feelings and Achebe has been highly criticized for Okonkwo’s actions against his
wives. This revaluates the significance of no only the pain of these women but also their
importance as individuals in the community. Okonkwo has been shown as a true patriarchal hero,
who believes being feminine is a sign of weakness and the true strength of a man lies in him being
masculine. The first instance of him being a controlling, patriarchal husband is when he finds an
excuse to beat his wife after beating her up, when he starts to pack his gun to go hunting, his wife –
Ekwefi – mutters under her breath “guns that never shot” making him so angry that he fires his gun
in her direction, but misses. Wife beating was an accepted practice in the culture at the time which
lead to the notion that if a man cannot control his wife, he is not manly enough as a result of which,
throughout the novel, Okonkwo has been frequently been shown to beat his wives.
further, Okonkwo dislikes how his son from his first wife is not masculine at all. Nwoye reminds
him of his father and according to Okonkwo, his father was a coward who did nothing to take a title
in his name or earn enough money. His father always borrowed money from neighbors and friends
till a point where he was so much under debt that everyone stopped lending him money and
Okonkwo saw this whole thing as very feminine – idea of being a weak man. It is only when
Ikemefuna came into Nwoye’s life that Nwoye started acting a little manly according to his father.
He frequently started inviting both of them to his obi to listen to “violent masculine stories”. The
whole reason why Nwoye used to listen to his father’s stories was because he knew his father
enjoyed watching this side of his son, on the contrary, Nwoye took a lot of pleasure in his mother’s
stories and likes helping her in the work she does, but he cannot tell this to his father because he
expresses disdain for women. Okonkwo’s weak side is only shown when the village decides to kill
Ikemefuna. Okonkwo does not show that he is attached to him and he finally had started treating
him like his own son, after his death, Okonkwo falls into depression and calls himself a “shivering
old woman” where again, woman was a sign of weakness.
A lot of feminist readers have voiced their concerns over Achebe’s portrayal of women and their
limited role in the society. Throughout the novel, women have been shown as child bearers and it
has been depicted in such a way that it is their only motive. Women were expected to produce
many hardy male progenies to be valued within their cultural milieu. The more sons a wife gave,
the more popular she was with her husband and any wife who gave three sons to her husband had a
goat sacrificed in her name by the husband as a mark of his happiness. Ekwefi did not become the
best wife in this sense, she was considered to be cursed because she gave ten live births out of
which only one child – a daughter survived. This did not lead to Ekwefi be jealous of Okonkwo’s
other two wives, instead, they stood in support with her and calmed her with her sadness. This
clearly shows how women bonded well with each other and had no jealousy or hatered towards
each other being the same man’s wives. The three wives were also shown to be standing up for
each other against Okonkwo when he frantically started beating either one of them, this again is an
instance of women supporting each other in a patriarchal society. was proud of her daughter,
Ezinma, he believed she had “the right spirit” and then wished she were a boy, but Ezinma is
shown as probably the only woman after Chelio who is a priest, whom Okonkwo respects.
“if Ezinma had been a boy, I would have been happier. She has the right spirit”
This above statement shows that even though Okonkwo respected his daughter and had love for her
which he won’t show, he believed he would have taught her or treated her even better given she
was a boy.
Finally, it has also been shown that a woman in religious power is respected by all irrespective of
her gender, Okonkwo sincerely respects her and knows her authority is not to be taken lightly.
When Chelio comes to take Ezinma with her, Ekwefi decides to follow them because of her love
for her daughter, she chooses her daughter over the Gods and her this action is something against
the idea of Okonkwo’s idea of being feminine and demonstrates that strength and bravery aren’t
just masculine traits.
To conclude, women in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart may seem to be downtrodden and victims, but
through a certain instances, achebe has also shown women standing up for themselves and even
women in authority figure whom everyone had to respect. Sisterhood has also been shown very
promptly, but in the end the violence against women and keeping them in the backdrop is
something that still highlights major factors of belonging to a patriarchal society. Thus, the role of
women in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart has been shown of a submissive one and someone who has
to do everything according to the head of the family who is always a man.
BIBLOGRAPHY
Achebe, Chinua.Things Fall Apart.New York: Anchor, 1994. Print.
Iyasere, Solomon. "Narrative Techniques in Things Fall Apart". Critical Perspectives on
Chinua Achebe. Ed. Killam, G.D. London: Heyman, 1969
Strong-Leek, Linda, “Reading as a women: Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and feminist
criticism”, 2014
