Achebe`s Portrayal of Women

Things Fall Apart : portrayal of African women

Whenever blacks and women are linked in discussions by Western feminists , black women are ignored in two ways - as black people and as women (Hooks 1981 , 8 . Apart from using the analogy between women and black people , Western feminism has also regularly made use of the image of colonial annexation , whereby the Western white male is presented as a colonizer not only of faraway countries but also of the woman "occupied and colonized by him . The woman as a victim of colonization is a tried

metaphor , used by Marilyn French among others . Colonialism has been equated with the relationship between men and women and , in line with colonialism 's well-known power relationships "the woman " is forced into a subordinate position . She is deprived of her voice and , like those colonized , she is called unreasonable and emotional , thus representing everything that rational men are not or do not want to be . Western middle-class women have applied this comparison to themselves without taking account of their own contradictory position of being "both colonized patriarchal objects and colonizing race-privileged subjects (Donaldson 1992 , 6 . On the one hand they are privileged beings on the other hand they are extensions of their husbands . African discussion nowadays more often are held in the context of the notions of feminist emancipation versus the struggle against neo-colonialism . Often this trend is observed in the cultural aspect

The aim of this essay is to make effort and feature out the treatment of woman and femininity within the context of the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

The central point of Things Fall Apart is author 's counterpoising of principles of masculine and feminine . The ground for such approach lies deep within Ibo tradition . The god , which supervises all others and governs life in Umuofia is called Ani , who is actually the earth goddess . The absence of balance between the manly virtues and the womanly virtues caused Okonkwo 's disasters . Okonkwo lives in a culture that requires establishing equilibrium between masculine ' and feminine , however , he does not admit this principle of equilibrium The part of reason for this is that he is ashamed of his father who has failed to be a real man , and he wants to rise above his father 's habits , idle behavior , which Okonkwo treats as weak and consequently feminine . And it is through his views that he is destroyed

Okonkwo is presented as the absolute antipode to his father . Okonkwo displays vulgar physicality that virtually incarnates the ideal of manhood supported in his society . On several occasions Okonkwo with his behavior expresses excessive acceptance of the manly ideals . Okonkwo 's denial to reconcile himself to the developments that bring him to his exile gives the chance to remind about the significance of the female principal , when he is given instructions by his maternal uncle , Uchendu about the admiration of the mother as source of life in their culture

`It 's true that a child belongs to its...