What Role Does The Role Women Play In The 1900's

Life in the 21st century has drastically changed during the past 100 years. The role women play in our society to this day, is different than the role women played in the 1900's. In the Western and Eastern countries, women were treated as objects and did not have a right to voice their opinion, often times women were mistreated by their own husbands. At that time nothing was done about it to prevent these occurrences because there were no laws that protected women against physical abuse. For example, although Okonkwo's behavior was aggressive and misogynistic, by western standards, it was socially acceptable in his village. It may in some respects have been considered commendable, when not done excess, and views to the contrary are in fact ethnocentric.

In the contrary to Okonkwo's village standards, if the man of the house felt that one of his wives did something wrong, it would be acceptable to physically punish her. In chapter 4, while Okonkwo "who had been walking about aimlessly in his compound in his suppressed anger, suddenly found an outlet" asked his wives "Who killed this banana tree". None of them wanted to answer, until he asked again. His second wife confessed to cutting a couple of leaves off it to wrap some food. With no hesitation or remorse, he gave her a sound beating which left her and her daughter weeping. After he decided to go out hunting, but before he stepped out he heard his second wife murmur something under her breath. This led Okonkwo's savageness to react in a way that almost killed her. He pointed a gun at her face, pulled the trigger but did hurt her. Days later when the wrestling matches were going on, Okonkwo's second wife has a conversation with Chielo, a woman that was sitting next to her watching the matches, about the incident that almost got her shot to death. This proves that it socially acceptable to physically abuse women with no