At first sight seemed that in Igbo society everything related to weakness was associated to women, actually Nwoye, Okonkwo’s first son, was compared to women because he was not strong. Okonkwo himself showed his ‘superiority’ when, in more than one occasion, he beat one of his wives. Besides, women appear to be oppressed with no power or social status. However, if we think carefully, we can notice that the female role in Things Fall Apart is much more important than what we thought.
First of all, women had the most powerful ability of all; they were able to bear children. Moreover, women educated and entertained those children by telling stories. Therefore, since women were always supportive and worried about their people, they were the base of their clan.
Female’s importance was better represented when Okonkwo was exiled from the Igbo village to his motherland. Uchendu, Okonkwo’s uncle told him that:
It is true that a child belongs to his father. But when a father beats his child, it seeks sympathy in its mother’s hut. 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. Your mother is there to protect you. She is buried there. And that is why we say that mother is supreme (55).
However, women’s role was not only related to their children and clan. Females had an
important role in the Igbo religion, for the women were the priestess of the village; they were spiritual leaders, they were feared and respected. Additionally, the Earth God was Ani, who was actually a Goddess.
All the facts mentioned might look contradictory if we take into account that females were supposed to be weak, but I think that at the end we can find a balance since we can equilibrate men’s physical power and women’s inner strength.
Although beating women was "accepted" by this culture as a demonstration of masculinity, of having control over wives, I think that this action is more important to Okwonko since, as you mentioned, weakness is a trait that characterizes women (in this novel) and at the same time Okwonko remembers his father as being weak and of course he doesn's want to resemble his father, a weak man that had large debts, whose family was always starving and had a bad chi. However, later in chapter seven we see that "nothing pleased Nwoye (Okwonko's son) now more than to be sent for by his mother or another of his father's wives to do one of those difficult and masculine tasks in the home" and that "Nwoye knew that it was right to be masculine and to be violent, but somehow he still preferred the stories that his mother used to tell". In my opinion, this depicts that for Nwoye being manly didn't meant to be violent to women and that women played a great role in the clans. To sum up what I have said in one final statement, Okwonko's exaggerated anger and violence against women had its roots in the rancor against his father Unoka.
ResponderEliminarI totally agree with you, Karla, especially in the last part. I do believe that in other cultures which have not lost the spiritual connection with each other and with the earth everything needs to be balanced. In this case, women and men need each other and together they are a complement, they are always supplementing the other's lacks. Now, regarding the Earth, I remember in the movie "Avatar" the deep connection that existed between the peoples of Pandora and the earth itself. It was said that the energy was only borrowed, that is to say that, the same energy that kept your body alive was going to be returned to the Earth when you died.
ResponderEliminarI agree with you Karla in the aspect that women represetented the inner strenght, which Okwonko didn't had as he weak on the inside, Yet, at the same time, women where mention as the comfort seeked by weak, maybe it's because this the categorization of the femine side as comfort for the weak that the women a representation of it where seen as weak.
ResponderEliminar