Things Fall Apart the Role

¶ … Things Fall Apart

The Role of Gender in Things Fall Apart

The work Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe has countless messages of a historical culture, that has been fundamentally altered by colonial intrusion and it is difficult to discuss gender in such a situation without discussing colonization, for several reasons. The work is a powerful expression of the moment in time when two cultures meet and begin to develop conflicts, ending in the near destruction of one. The Igbo culture, detailed by the work is a rich culture demonstrating independent and collective cultural expression. Gender studies theories often seek out such works to express the cultural change and destruction that is frequently a fundamental aspect of the patriarchal colonial culture and ideal. Yet, within Things Fall Apart there is a clear sense that the Igbo culture is fiercely patriarchal. The culture, as it is depicted by Achebe stresses the importance of the role of polygamy as well as Achebe's interpretation of a near complete political, social and individual rule by men, over women in the society and the household. Achebe's work is a clear representation of a patriarchal society in breakdown, yet the depiction of the subjugation of women is not grouped as a breakdown it is guised as part of the norm, saying a great deal about gender in the work. Gender is clearly defined by Achebe in Things Fall Apart as wholly patriarchal, in both the colonial as well as the Igbo cultures and women are portrayed as powerless, subservient while men are the holders of all decisions and property.

In many ways it can be argued that post-colonial criticism was born out of a feminist or gender studies tradition, and this is especially true of African literature and criticism (Mohan 30) as well as revisionist literature (which Things Fall Apart clearly is) and yet many also argue that Achebe leaves out the important questions of gender in his text, as a narrative tool and as a misreading of the real feminine power found in historical African culture. (Stratton 90) (Osei-Nyame 155) the argument by many feminist and gender studies critics is that Achebe has missed an opportunity to allow real egalitarian traditions within the African and specifically the Igbo culture to be demonstrated and that he has replaced this opportunity with expressions of extreme patriarchal identity. This argument attempts to stress that Achebe fundamentally lost the point by depicting the Igbo culture as one that was predominantly male and not more balanced, as a narrative tool to stress male power and race as the predominantly important aspects of what was lost to colonial dominance.

According to one critic, the primary concern of the first part of Things Fall Apart is to restore humanity to a colonized and defaced African society. The first scenes of the novel, in which women are depicted as accessories to the house holding man offers a glimpse of the kinds of power that women actually held in the home, and yet decentralizes her role as a carrier of her husband's power;

The young Okonkwo, having inherited nothing from his father "neither a barn nor a title, nor even a young wife (17)" has come to borrow seed yams from his clansman, Nwakibie. Before they settle down to business, the palm-wine Okonkwo has brought is shared among the men present. Nwakibie calls in his wives: Anasi was a middle-aged woman, tall and strongly built. There was authority in her bearing and she looked every inch the ruler of the womenfolk in a large and prosperous family. She wore the anklet of her husband's titles, which the first wife alone could wear. (Stratton 24-25)

It would seem that this narrative begins by a description of the nature of the respect and pride men had for women, as Nwakibie's first wife is given the express honor of displaying her husband's valor, and yet the passage goes on to describe subservience and objectivity.

She walked up to her husband and accepted the horn from him. She then went down on one knee, drank a little and handed back the horn. She rose, called him by his name and went back to her hut. The other wives drank in the same way, in their proper order, and went away. (Achebe 18-19)

In this passage there is a glimpse of the power that women held, though there is also a strong sense of the subservient role of women. Women, as collectively marginalized as beings left to bow on one knee, during ceremony and life, and yet those who hold household power are given the "privilege" of expressing the nature of their husband's greatness on their ankles.

Palmer chooses this excerpt as one of the passages he particularly admires, stating that from it "the reader gains a sense of an alien, but nevertheless strong, self-assured, and civilized society"(Introduction 51). & #8230; Might she not wonder if the abject servitude of women is the hallmark of a "civilized society" in its representation of male-female power relations, this passage is emblematic. For with the notable exception of Chielo, the powerful priestess of Agbala, Achebe's women are, indeed, "down on one knee," if not both, before their menfolk & #8230; (Stratton 25)

There are countless examples of this subservient role in Achebe's work and this slants the expression of the narrative as one of the struggles between the men of the Igbo and the white interlopers, but entirely leaves out the expression of resistance by women. Women are possessions, like cattle and yams. "He had a large barn full of yams and he had three wives"( Achebe 6). Another example:

Akueke [entered] carrying a wooden dish with three kola nuts and alligator pepper. She gave the dish to her fathers eldest brother and then shook hands, very shyly, with her suitor and his relatives." When she had shaken hands, or rather held out her hand to be shaken, she returned to her mother's hut to help with the cooking. (64-5)

The work is clearly decisively slanted toward a representation of the Igbo as a patriarchal power structure, with no hints of women as much more than property, equal to barns and livestock, traded and dominated by male decisions and actions. Women are spoken to and treated harshly, especially when they offer any form of resistant to male power as Okonkwo's first wife is informed: "Do what you are told, woman." When did you become one of the ndichie of Umuofia?"(11).

It is also important to note the violent manner in which Okonkwo is depicted intruding on the domestic matters of women. As this depiction reiterates and supports the argument of a lost opportunity. The violence Okonkwo demonstrates against his wife when she fails to produce a meal is acceptable to the community. Beating her was only prohibited, as an expression of divergence from the weak of peace, that was occurring at the time of the event. The passages that discuss this violence are attempting to show that Okonkwo was inappropriately violent in a time of stress, and foreshadow his own self inflicted violence of suicide, yet it also makes clear that the transgression of the wife is severe and that the wife would have been rightfully beaten at any other non-ceremonial time in the culture. The indiscretion, of beating his wife during the week of peace was depicted as damaging to himself, as he created disharmony in his chi by beating her during the week of peace, not by beating her. (29-33)