Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Masculinity in Things Fall Apart
One of the main themes in Things Falls Apart is masculinity and its a topic I fell strongly about that needs to change. It is ridiculous how much the men in this book put themselves above woman like Okonkwo. It isn't normal. You can't beat girls and make them your slaves like Okonkwo makes her wives do everything for him and also his daughters. You can't beat your wife or any woman.
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Adrianna, I completely agree, I also believe in equal rights for men and women. In Okonkwo's living conditions however, this was the norm, people did not blink or wince if they heard or saw a women in pain. I also believe that this is wrong and is quite backwards.
ReplyDeleteI think that you touched on one of the biggest problems in the entire book. Masculinity not only harms the lives of the women but of Okonkwo as well. The problem, I think, lies in the structure of their society and not just in how Okonkwo behaves. Men have three wives. Women are considered inferior in almost every aspect of work (yams are a man's crop) and entertainment and ceremony. Different things are already expected of the women (they must run at the sight of the egwugwu). So by nature Okonkwo would behave in the way that he did because patriarchy is deeply entrenched in their society. Okonkwo is behaving as an extension of that society. Perhaps, beating their wives was the normal for them. Of course, this by no means makes it right.But we have to be open minded in understanding where Okonkwo was coming from, especially because we are so horrified at what goes on in the book. It's just like in history when we look at the Aztecs. We could shut our textbooks and stop reading about them when we heard about the sacrifice because it made us uncomfortable, or we could continue to learn about other parts of their society to make them multi-dimentional all the while never forgetting what we know.
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