“Women are just as good as men” Male. That one word causes many women in the Igbo culture to hate themselves because they are not one of them. They have to sit and act like a girl because if not, the men in their society would ridicule them. The idea that men are superior to women seemed normal to the Igbo, but to readers of Things Fall Apart it sounded sexist. In fact, the culture was sexist and the way that they treated women was unfair. Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart, shows that the Igbo culture is sexist, unbalanced and that men are valued due to the way that they treat women. The culture is most definitely sexist. Cobham said that “Western student readers of Things Fall Apart complain that the novel is ‘sexist’ meaning usually that they find Okonkwo misogynist” (Cobham 166-167). Misogynist means a person who dislikes, despises, or is strongly prejudiced against women, so yes Okonkwo is a misogynist. In one part of the novel concerning the crops shows the sexism: “His mother and sisters worked hard enough, but they grew women’s crops, like coco-yams, beans and …show more content…
In an article about the Igbos perception of women there is a proverb that says “when a lady lives to her satisfaction, she puts her buttocks in the kitchen” (Mmadike 100). This is saying that the men do not want women in the way of things. Women are to do what they need to do and then go to the kitchen. The men are valued because they do all the “heavy lifting.” Okonkwo said “I will not have a son who cannot hold up his head in the gathering of the clan. I would sooner strangle him with my own hands.” He does not want a son who has a terrible reputation because as a son everything leads back to your father. Nwoye who is Okonkwos eldest son is exactly like his father, Unoka. Okonkwo tried everything not to be like his father but his son is just like him. Women are not valued while the men are