Things Fall Apart Research Paper

In this day in age, women are known for being impeccable forces and are on the way of running the world. But in the novel Things Fall Apart written by Chinua Achebe, this is not the case. Women are viewed completely opposite compared to the present. Men only think of women as a tool but in all actuality, women in the Umuofian society are the backbone that holds the village together. Looking at Umuofia, it showcased what women were and how she was perceived during the time period. Women are thought to have simplistic, powerless roles. The quote “Okonkwo ruled his household with a heavy hand. His wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper.…”(Achebe 13) showcases this. The issues and treatment brought on to the women by the men make women in the

Men belittle and abuse their power over them. In addition, many women faced physical challenges such as beatings. A common act done by men during the time left women feeling as if they had truly done something wrong, which is not usually the case. In addition, women were commonly pawned off at the time. “The elders, or ndichie, met to hear a report of Okonkwo’s mission. At the end they decided, as everybody knew they would, that the girl should go to Ogbuefi Udo to replace his murdered wife. As for the boy, he belonged to the clan as a whole, and there was no hurry to decide his fate.” (Achebe 12) At the beginning of the book, a girl taken from a neighboring village is decided rapidly compared to the young boy, Ikemefuna, who was also taken and dent to live with Okonkwo. Another challenge women in the Igbo society faced were beatings. Beatings were thought to have been a way to keep the wife at home in line with how the men envisioned them to be. Sometimes beating were taken to highly extreme measure, evident in Okonkwo’s beating of his second wife, Ekwefi, during the Week of Peace ending with him almost shooting