Masculinity/Feminity, Things Fall Apart - 2200 Words

Things Fall Apart Masculine/Feminine In most cultures an individual’s gender will influence their characterization. For instance, Ibo tribes in Africa classify people according to their gender. Women are thought as submissive individuals who are to some extent weaker than men. Men on the other hand are thought of as strong beings with much expected from them. Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart strongly emphasizes on the categorization of masculinity and femininity in the society of Ibo tribes. Throughout the book, Okonkwo’s idea about masculinity situates him with respect to his community. In his community Okonkwo is greatly praised for his masculine traits. It is Okonkwo integration with masculinity that leads to him becoming an†¦show more content†¦His masculine attitudes of not â€Å"reasoning like cowards† and â€Å"this is what a man does† are examples of how he cannot and will not back down from his war ways, which shows he is trying to strive away from his fatherâ€⠄¢s legacy of a man who had no titles. Through out the book Okonkwo tries to get the most he can possibly attain. Okonkwo was really first recognized for throwing the cat and becoming the greatest wrestler in Umuofia. This probably has him thinking that the way to achieve greatness is through sheer strength alone. Okonkwo thinks that his mother’s clan is too womanly compare to his father’s clan of Umuofia, however even when he returns to his father’s clan after the completion of his exile he is also very much out of place there also. This is due to his obsessive masculinity and also because he just cannot adapt to the changing of times. Okonkwo â€Å"had lost his place among the masked spirits in the village† in addition to that â€Å"he had lost the chance to lead his warlike clan against the new religion† consequently he lost any voice he ever had and was a â€Å"stranger† in his land seeming as nobody appeared to have taken any special notice of the â€Å"warriors† return. He speaks with his friend Obierika about the strangeness of his home land saying, â€Å"Perhaps I have been away too long, but I cannot understand these things you tell me. What is it that has happened to our people? Why have they lost the power to fight...I have also heard that Abame people were weakShow MoreRelatedPost Colonial Perception on the Grass Is Singing4315 Words   |  18 Pagesdidn’t behave like a white mistress. She had treated him like a friend and then started treating him like a servant. They were treated abominably. It was said that the white mistresses didn’t know how to treat their servants and obviously it was a sex thing. In African culture, for women to tell a man what to do was impossible. Yet, all these houses had men-servants and the white mistresses spoke to them in high, harassed, angry voice. They couldn’t talk to them like people. The author chooses to start