In Chinua Achebe’s short novel, Things Fall Apart, set in male-dominated late 19th century Africa, the African community specifically the Umuofia tribe, struggles to uphold their own traditions while the invading Europeans try interject their own religion and customs upon them. The tragic hero of the story, Okonkwo, becomes infuriated with his own people as he witnesses them betray their own morals and culture. He desperately tries to preserve the ethics and traditions of his community while the white man comes to destroy all that they once proudly had. The African community is rather a very patriarchal one. The author denotes a goal Okonkwo has which is to always appear and be the masculine figure his father never was. In his youth, his father
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For example, the first wife of a man would be commemorated with the palm wine at Nwakibie obi in Achebe’s book. Nwakibie's first wife, Anansi, had not yet arrived to her ceremony and "the [other wives] could not drink before her". Perhaps the significance of a woman's role emerges when the author outlines Okonkwo’s banishment from his clan to his motherland. Okonkwo’s uncle notices Okonkwo's distress, and explains how Okonkwo should perceive his exile: "A man belongs to his fatherland when things are good and life is sweet. But when there is sorrow and bitterness he finds refuge in his motherland." When a man experiences both joy and sorrow, he always has his "mother" who is always there to comfort him, thus comes the saying "Mother is Supreme". But in the book, the Umuofia tribe allowed the beating of wives to maintain the male dominance and the image of women as powerless humans. The author illustrated the two incidents in which Okonkwo had beat his wife. When she did not come home to cook Okonkwo’s dinner, he severely struck her countless of times and was condemned for his actions but only because he did so during the Week of Peace. The second time, he beat her again when she told him he was like those "guns that never shot." When Okonkwo is being tried in front of the egwugwu, he found that the case was in favor of the wife, but at the end of the trial one of the men pondered "why such a trifle should come before the
For example, the first wife of a man would be commemorated with the palm wine at Nwakibie obi in Achebe’s book. Nwakibie's first wife, Anansi, had not yet arrived to her ceremony and "the [other wives] could not drink before her". Perhaps the significance of a woman's role emerges when the author outlines Okonkwo’s banishment from his clan to his motherland. Okonkwo’s uncle notices Okonkwo's distress, and explains how Okonkwo should perceive his exile: "A man belongs to his fatherland when things are good and life is sweet. But when there is sorrow and bitterness he finds refuge in his motherland." When a man experiences both joy and sorrow, he always has his "mother" who is always there to comfort him, thus comes the saying "Mother is Supreme". But in the book, the Umuofia tribe allowed the beating of wives to maintain the male dominance and the image of women as powerless humans. The author illustrated the two incidents in which Okonkwo had beat his wife. When she did not come home to cook Okonkwo’s dinner, he severely struck her countless of times and was condemned for his actions but only because he did so during the Week of Peace. The second time, he beat her again when she told him he was like those "guns that never shot." When Okonkwo is being tried in front of the egwugwu, he found that the case was in favor of the wife, but at the end of the trial one of the men pondered "why such a trifle should come before the