Gender, Culture And Religion In Things Fall Apart By Chinua Achebe

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Ayobami Adedeji
Things Fall Apart
The novel "Things Fall Apart" was set in the southeastern part of Nigeria where most Igbo’s live. I remember when I first saw the Novel "Things fall apart." I read the plot summary a sentence which, mislead me was "it is the story of a "strong" man whose life is dominated by fear and anger." I concluded this story is just going to be about a man who was like the James bond of his town. I read the content of the book and found out I was totally wrong. The author gave a full insight to the readers, which helps to unravel the culture of the Igbo’s and how the land of Umuofia was during the anti colonial era. The book focus on so many things, but the main things are Gender, Culture and Religion. I always wanted to know what inspired Chinua Achebe to write this Novel I have read several articles and a lot of people write and talk about the novel inspiration, which was showing the aspect of Africa people didn 't know or usually see in a literary novel. …show more content…

In Sara Mills article "Gender and colonial space" She wrote "space is in general encoded and policed/regulated in different ways for women and men.” "space" is encoded in the sense that gender was what broke this helped people to get to know what their role was in relation to their space. The domestic “space” was for the females where they had to cook and take care of the children it was the and the other way around for men. In “Things fall apart" Okonkwo had the "space" which reflected that he was the stronger gender his space was also decorated with war clothes and things used in fighting war to show he was stronger gender. He had the most say in the house for example, when his wife left to make her hair, he got angry because she left her space and her duties which was to take care of the

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