Gender, Colonization, and Cultural Reformation In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart Janel Stevenson College

“No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children (and especially his women) he was not really a man” (Achebe 45). Throughout Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, gender and cultural norms of the Igbo tribe have been highlighted and challenged. From the time a child is born, they are taught the societal standards, customs, and traditions of the tribe. Igbo men are the kings of their households, who are expected to raise crops and turn their boys into men who hold “many titles”, while Igbo women are expected to be dependent, obedient, and beautiful. The notion that men are inferior to women appears across the globe and Achebe opens up the topic for discussion in his novel. Men especially in the Igbo tribe have been trained to deny any “feminine” feelings and to debunk the authority of women. This novel with an ironic ending for the Igbo tribe takes the reader on a journey through the life of Okonkwo, an Igbo tribesman who is well respected and “masculine” in every sense of the word. Things Fall Apart attempts to answer the question; is it possible for a culture that is cemented in hyper-masculine traditions to surrender to an effeminate way of life?

The Igbo’s strict androcentric society...