Throughout Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, we see that domestic jobs are assigned to a person based on their gender within families. When these domestic gender roles are not met, tension ensues within families. First, Okonkwo constantly expects his wives to cook and clean, and when Okonkwo’s wives do not execute their domestic roles, Okonkwo punishes them. Second, Okonkwo dissociates himself from his father, Unoka, in all aspects of life because he feels he does not fulfill the gender role of a hard-working, brave man. Finally, Okonkwo’s son, Nwoye, is similar to Unoka in that he is does not resemble the traditional strong and masculine adolescent boy; Nwoye doesn’t feel welcome in his family and culture, so he leaves his family and becomes a part of the Christian community. In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo believes the strength of his family is determined by each family member …show more content…
Things Fall Apart suggests that wanting to have traditional gender roles within families creates an unhealthy relationship and causes them to isolate one another.
In the Igbo culture, women are considered inferior to men, so Okonkwo aggressively imposes the domestic roles of cooking and cleaning onto his wives, resulting in chaos. In igbo society, polygamy is a sign of a man’s masculinity and strength. “Many Igbo practice polygyny, which means that men can have more than one wife. A successful man marries as many wives as he can support”(Young). When one of Okonkwo’s wives, Ojiugo, does not execute her domestic, female role to prepare dinner for that night, Okonkwo beats her. “He walked back to his obi to wait Ojiugo’s return. And when she returned he beat her very heavily. In his anger he had forgotten that it was the Week of Peace” (29). Because Okonkwo is so caught up in the idea that gender roles are essential for a family to be strong, he becomes angry when his wives are not constantly doing their jobs