Okonkwo And Women In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

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In Chinua Achebe’s novel called “Things Fall Apart” the author continuously associates weakness with women and there is also a mistreatment of women. In the beginning of the novel, there was a comparison was made between Okonkwo and his father. Okonkwo was greatly known for his courage, strength, and hard work which caused many to fear him. However, his father was known as a lazy man that had no power. The novel stated “Even now he still remembered how he had suffered when a playmate had told him his father was agbala. That was how Okonkwo first came to know that agbala was not only another name for a woman, it could also mean a man who had taken no title” (13). This statement illustrates the negative connotation associated with women because the term agbala means women, as well as, an incompetent man. Another example of women being associated with weakness was when Nwoye …show more content…
In their culture, this was obviously something that they felt was acceptable. However, there was only one instance in which Okonkwo’s behavior was not supported and that was during the Week of Peace. The other occasion of Okonkwo beating his wife occurred only because he was angry. The author wrote “Okonkwo’s second wife had merely cut a few leaves off it to wrap some food, and she said so. Without further argument Okonkwo gave her a sound beating and left her and her only daughter weeping” (38). This example of the novel shows the authoritarian behavior of Okonkwo towards his wives. Whenever he was mad or did not support something that they did, he proceeded to abuse them without any explanation. His behavior was not fair and it showed that in these relationships he believed that as a man he had the power, and his wives had to always obey him. These passages relate to the novel as a whole because they illustrate the negative way in which women were portrayed and treated in their