ON MASCULINITY AND FEMININITY IN

CHINUA ACHEBE’S THINGS FALL APART

Albert Chinualumogo Achebe known as Chinua Achebe is one living African writer widely acclaimed for his work

in English Literature.

Born to Christian evangelical parents he was raised in a town Ogidi, in

Igboland, in Eastern Nigeria.

In 1958,

his first Novel named Things Fall Apart was

published, which describes traditional

Igbo life in colonial government in his

country.

Femininity (also called feminity, womanliness or womanhood) is a set of

attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with girls and women.

Femininity is socially constructed, but made up of both socially-defined and biologically-created factors.

This makes it distinct from the definition of the biological female sex,as both men and

women can exhibit feminine traits.

Traits traditionally cited as feminine include gentleness, empathy, and sensitivity, though traits associated with femininity vary depending on location and context, and are influenced by a variety of social and cultural factors.The counterpart to femininity

is masculinity.

Masculinity is possessing qualities or characteristics considered typical of

appropriate to a man.

The term can be used to describe any human, animal or object that has the quality of

being masculine.

Basic masculine characteristics include physical prowess, courage, wisdom and

honourable or righteous behaviour.

In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart the main character

Okonkwo’s life is based upon the believe of male masculinity and

hard work.

He prides himself on his masculinity and does not accept failure or weakness of any kind including any from his family

members.

An example of an individual that Okonkwo despised and does not accept was Okwonko’s father Unoka. To the community he was weak and

considered to not be a true man.

He was a failure in the eyes of society and constantly borrowed money. Unoka had only taken one wife and was unable to support his family. This inability to support his family stemmed from his bad work ethic

and laziness.

”When Unoka died he had taken no title at all and he was heavily in debt” (pg. 5).

All aspects of Okonkwo’s life were devoted to

masculinity. Even when farming he was

conditioned by his clansmen that yams their

staple crop is the king of crops.

This is further the male dominance in the Ibo culture because males will be the only people able to provide for the

family. When his family was working hard to provide food he thought it would

not help because they could not grow yams.

He thought that” His mother and sisters

worked hard enough, but they grew women’s crops, like coco-yams, beans

and cassava.”(pg. 19)

Every time he felt weak Okonkwo was reminded of his father failure and how he was

not able to provide for his family.

Which lead Okonkwo to even participated in the killing of his adoptive son Ikemefuna

because

“he was afraid of being thought weak” (pg. 53).

Afterward he slumped into a period of depression because of his actions.

“Okonkwo did not taste any food for two days after the death of Ikemefuna” (pg.55).

His view of masculinity is so high that he was

even willing to kill his loved ones.

“The messenger crouched to avoid the blow.

It was useless. Okonkwo’s machete

descended twice and the man’s head lay

beside his uniformed body.” (pg. 176).

Then everyone started to panic and

question why he killed the messengers.

That was when he realized his way of life

was over because they let the other

messengers escape. Later on he committed

suicide by hanging himself from a tree. This

shows that he was so ingrained in his

cultures lifestyle that when it was taken

away he had nothing left to live for.

Conclusion

Okonkwo gave the concept of masculinity a

very strong presence in the story, and in fact,

is the primary theme for this novel.

Okonkwo's obsession with remaining manly

interfered with his personal growth, and

judgment. If becoming obsessed with

masculinity causes one to commit murder, it's

quite apparent this situation has gone too far.

Okonkwo could have lived a peaceful, happy

life, if it were not for being blinded by the ideal

view of manliness.