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How Are Women Treated In ​Things Fall Apart

Based on the report by Global Wealth in the year of 2016, Thailand is listed on the

rank as number three of the most unequal nation in the world (Fernquest, 2016). One of the

factors which contribute to this is social inequality. Social inequality exists everywhere, not

only just in Thailand but all across the world, from the largest continents like Asia to the

country like Nigeria in Africa. In Nigeria, some people cannot even access to the basic

education and public services provided in the country (Archibong, 2018). There are many

aspects that are responsible for this social inequality, varying from religion, culture,

traditional customs, social status and standards set in society. These standards involve what a

person should possess. Social inequality tremendously affect on different aspects of

individual As in the Igbo culture, it would impact in areas like, the rights to protected in the

society, freedom to behave, to express idea. Moreover, it is associated with other types of

inequality. For instance, gender inequality, racial inequality and wealth inequality. Like how

gender inequality can lead to the unjust treatment from others in the society, eventually

resulting in discrimination. Men and women should already be treated equally in the society.

However, gender inequality between men and women still lasts and exists in this modern day.

Women are bordered by certain rules and regulations. This certainly limits the freedom of

women and what they are capable of doing. Many forms of discrimination also arises which

impede women from enjoying their life. In some countries in the world, women still have less

job opportunity and in the worst case, even receive less salary than men who work in the

same job. It is said that full-time jobs women only earn 77 percent of full-time jobs men (YR

Media, 2017). This unjust treatment occurs in every place, from within family to large

occasions, like in workplace. In ​Things Fall Apart​, Chinua Achebe illustrates how women

suffer in an unequal society.

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First of all, the cultures are more biased on each gender, especially men. Within the

novel, the villagers think that the strongest gender in terms of physical and mental strength in

the village is men. For this aspect, it gives men priority and emphasis on them. A man who

hurts other men is punished harder than a man who hurts women. For instance, when

Okonkwo assaults his wife, Ojiugo, “And when she was not speaking the truth. He walked

back to his obi to await Ojiugo’s return. And when she returned he beat her very heavily”

(p.29). It is clear that women merely serve as the sandbag of men. Okonkwo expresses his

anger to his wife in form of brutal behavior and torment her physically. This act of Okonkwo

is very unreasonable. He does not even listen to what Ojiugo, his third wife, has to say.

Instead, as soon as the woman returns home, he immediately beats her. Ojiugo simply just

went to her friend’s home, it is clear that she doesn’t deserve to be beaten heavily like that by

Okonkwo. It is seen that penalty for harming wife is not prevailed. Another strong evidence

to support this fact is “‘Your wife was at fault, but even if you came into your obi and found

her lover on top of her, you would still have commited a great evil to beat her’” (p.30). This

further explains the scene from the previous quote where Ojiugo beaten by Okonkwo during

the Week of Peace. The frustration of the priest towards Okonkwo’s brutal behavior is not

because he had beaten his wife, but it is because he did it during the sacred week. The quote

here demonstrates that even if regardless of what the women do, Okonkwo would still beat

her. Based on the interpretation of what the priest had said to him, it suggests that it is okay

for Okonkwo to beat his wife however he likes, but no during the Week of Peace, when we

have to remain at peace in order to honour Ani, the Earth goddess. However, when Okonkwo

treats a man the same way he treats his wife, the outcome is completely different as it is

mentioned in the story. This scene is during Ezeudu’s funeral when Okonkwo’s gun

accidentally bursts. “Gun fired the last salute and the cannon rent the sky.… In the centre of
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the crowd a boy lay in a pool of blood. It was the dead man's sixteen-year-old son, who with

his brothers and half-brothers had been dancing the traditional farewell to their father.... The

only course open to Okonkwo was to flee from the clan” (p.124). Unfortunately, Ezeudu’s

son got hit by the gun’s component and dies. Despite that it is merely an unintentional

accident, Okonkwo cannot erase the fact that he has contributed to taking the child’s life.

Therefore, he must receive the punishment for his crime, in this case an inadvertent crime.

The penalty for Okonkwo is that he has to leave Umuofia, the land where he stays, for seven

year. He can only comes back after the penalty has expired. The penalty of beating men is

considered more serious compared to women, who are known to be the weaklings of the

society.

In addition, role of women are limited in freedom to only take care their children and

prepare meal in the household. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2012) says, the higher you go,

the fewer women there are. This can relate to the profession of the women. As can be seen in

the story, men play major roles in the village such as leader of the clan and land’s owner,

which are the upper class in the society; however, the duty of women can be compared as the

lower class of the society. According to the text, “Five women stayed behind to look after the

cooking-pots, and all the rest rushed away to see the cow that had been let loose” (p.114).

This shows that no matter what happened women still have to be responsible for the

housework, in this case cooking food. They all cannot leave the place and abandon their work

to see the incident that occur. Some have to remain and continue on the job they are assigned

to. Moreover, Achebe (1994) also explains that women strictly need to be in charge of the

domestic routine. The fact that Ojiugo, Okonkwo’s third wife leave the house and does not

cook the lunch for him really makes him angry. Okonkwo patiently waits for the lunch to be

served at his obi. But, after a long wait and there is no sign of her coming, he visits him at her
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hut. This is when he finds out that she’s not there to cook him food. A bunch of questions are

asked by Okonkwo. Those questions are mainly about what Ojiugo supposed to be taking of

her household duty. It indicates that women should always be there to take care of the

household and all the housework. She has no right to leave the house without any permission

and leave her tasks like how Ojiugo does.

Furthermore, women are not accepted by society if they are strong. Samantha Olson

(2015) states that all men are expected to be masculine and strong. When they face with

difficulties, they also expected to carry all of those burden without complaining nor crying.

Thus, these characteristics should only shown up on men. It is mentioned a bunch of time that

Okonkwo wants his daughter, Ezinma, to be born as male. “‘I wish she were a boy,’

Okonkwo thought within himself”(p.173). This is because Ezinma owns all the quality that

strong men have, all the manliness and the masculine spirit. Ezinma has characteristic that

strong people have except that her gender is women, and that is not acceptable as in Umuofia.

Women are treated as inferior in the village, no matter how strong they are, they will always

be under men. This demonstrates that Ezinma could never be what Okonkwo wants her to be,

despite her manliness. Ezinma is a girl and she could not, own titles or achievement, neither

can she bring any pride to Okonkwo and the family. This is what really disappoint him, the

fact that Ezinma is born as a women. Also, Okonkwo says that “‘I will only have a son who

is a man, who will hold his head up among my people.’” (p.172). The expectation of men

which is set by the society of Igbo is illustrated here. Okonkwo only wants a son who is the

man, which can be notable by people and push his livelihood up higher. From his aspect,

having a great son will benefit him and his family a lot.

In conclusion, it is demonstrated in ​Things Fall Apart that women have to undergo

through a lot of sufferings due to the unjust society. Women are not protected by any laws or
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regulations in terms of domestic violence, their roles within the society are also limited, and

women are always viewed and treated as inferior regardless of what they’re capable of.

Throughout the century, since the ancient times until this present day, the issue of inequality

still persists in the society and remains unsolved.

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References

Fernquest, J. (2016). Thailand third most unequal country in world. ​Bangkok Post.​ Retrieved

fromhttps://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/advanced/1147468/thailand-third-most-u

nequal-country-in-world

Why Are Women Treated Differently? (2017). ​VR media​. Retrieved from

https://yr.media/yr-raw/student-content/why-are-women-treated-differently/

Archibong, B. (2018). Historical origins of persistent in inequality in Nigeria.​ Oxford

Development Studies. Retrieved from

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13600818.2017.1416072

Olson, S. (2015). What It Means to 'Be a Man': How Male Gender Stereotypes Try to

Fit Growing Boys into a Mold, and Fail​. Medicaldaily. ​Retrieved from

https://www.medicaldaily.com/what-it-means-be-man-how-male-gender-stereotypes-t

ry-fit-growing-boys-mold-and-fail-326450

​ etrieved from
Adichie, C. N. (2012). We should All Be Feminists​. TED Talk. R

https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_we_should_all_be_feminists?

language=en