WEEK 2 ~~

Women in Things Fall Apart

Go through your notes on gender differences and other websites dealing with gender studies. Based on your reading, reflect on how these women are treated in the novel. The following questions can help you as you write your reflective piece in your blog:

•  How are the women treated in the novel? Do all members in the community agree with the status quo? Why? 
• What contributions are made by the Igbo women to the survival of their culture? 
• What are the changes in women’s roles in this present world?

Do provide a suitable title for your reflective post. Apart from writing your blog, you are also required to comment on two of your friends' blogs. Your comments should take into account the following points:

• Are their reflections based on opinions, experiences or facts? If they are opinions, are they supported by some form of evidence? Is the evidence trustworthy?
• Is there evidence of synthesis of ideas based on their readings? Is there evidence they read widely to come up to certain conclusions?

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ARE WOMEN STILL SERVING AS THE SUBORDINATE?

BY CATHERINE JANET TIWI

Based on my reading on some articles on the Internet, there are two views that strike me the most. Both the different ideas come from two different fellows. Sigmund Freud views women as the “second class group” in the society. “Women are “mutilated” and must learn to accept their lack of penis (in Freud’s terms a “deformity”) (Wikipedia, 2013). He clearly states that the women are of disadvantage if compared to the men. From the same source too, Jacques Lacan on the other hand says that women are just serving as the supplementary of the men in the organization. Unlike Freud, women are not fully downgraded; just they are slightly lower than the men.

In the novel “Things Fall Apart”, the women are really treated as what Freud labeled. They are just the “servant” for the men. They bear children, do the daily house chores over and over again and their freedom is restricted. For instance, it is shown in the novel that Okonkwo beats his third wife when he finds that she is not home when he comes back. She does not do her daily tasks; getting the food ready for the husband. It is just a small mistake and it can be settled through a short session of talk and advice from the husband to the wife. But why is the wife ended being beaten? It is not that the women in the Igbo tribe accepted the fact that they are just the husbands’ “servants”, it is just the matter of respect that makes them follows all the husbands’ words and decisions blindly.

But nowadays, the modernization takes place and we can see the achievements of the women. They are not the subordinate anymore but some have already being the leader of the nation. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo run the Philippines as the president and Datuk Seri Zeti Aktar Aziz is currently Malaysia’s Gabenor for the National Bank In the universities, the enrolment of the female students’ shots up and in the working field like education and medics, women are on action. This shows that women can contribute to the nation if they are given the opportunity to do so. Women can rock the world too!

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THINGS FALL APART : IGBO CINDERELLA

1. How are the women treated in the novel? Do all members in the community agree with the status quo? Why?

Women are treat lowly in the society and not given chances to develop their potentials. Men often take women for granted. In Umuofia, women have a low position in the society. Men can treat their women any how they like. For example Okonkwo beats his wife, Ojiugo during the Sacred Week. The society only fined Okonkwo on the reason that he is breaking the peace of Sacred Week and not because he beats a woman. In the Igbo society, only priestess like Chielo will be respected in the society due to her position close to god of earth. Even Okonkwo respects the Priestess and do not dare to chielo when she came and Ezinma away. Other than that, women are consider as weak and that’s the reason, men with no title and incapable to grow yams are considered as agbala which means women because the society viewed them as weak as women. For example Unoka, he is viewed by the standards of the clan, Unoka was a coward and a spendthrift. He never took a title in his life, he borrowed money from his clansmen, and he rarely repaid his debts. He never became a warrior because he feared the sight of blood. Moreover, he died of an abominable illness. (Spark note)

Women are not allowed to enter the clan’s ancestral house where Egwugwu meet for fear that they weaken the power of Egwugwu.

The reasons why women treated lowly in the Igbo society are because of nature of being gentle, loving, caring and weak. Umuofia is patriarchal society where men who make life decisions and women just follow and not given right to voice out their opinion. Men are the head of the family and everyone must listen to him. Because men hold the power and authority, wife beating is acceptable practice in the Igbo society. The concept of masculinity of a man is proved when he can control his wives. They often denigrate women saying that they are not important. Some of the men are misogynist due to the practice and belief inherited from the previous generations where they follow blindly what the previous generation did to women.

2. What contributions are made by the Igbo women to the survival of their culture?

Women’s primary roles in the society are to bear children and taking care of household.

3. What are the changes in women’s roles in this present world?

Women are treated equally as men in the present day. Many women are elected or chosen as leader such as Aung San Suu Kyi, Hillary Clinton,  Dato’ Seri Zeti Aziz or Queen Elizabeth II. We can see nowadays that women are continually taking over man roles in man dominated areas. Although women are into man dominated specialty, but their roles in it still view as skeptical by the society. The present society is still view women as child bearer and can only taking care of household. Because of the stereotyping, women often encounter discrimination especially in workplace. So in summary, there is not much change in women perception in the eye of the past and present society although their roles in man dominated specialty is accepted by some of the society. 

GLORIA JARAU

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Women in Things Fall Apart

by Trecy Barbara

The women are not treated equally with the men for example the women status is not the same as the men status. They view women as a weak person and dependent towards men. They never give the women chance to voice out their opinion and they even do not involve the women in their meeting. When the white missionary comes to their village, only the men gather and discuss about the matter without giving a chance for the women to get involved in the meeting. The women status in the novel is not worth for the men to acknowledge it because the society sees women status just as a person who will produce a baby, that’s all. The more the children they get the higher the status of the family just like the yam, more yams had been produce the higher the status that a person will get.

Other than that, the Igbo society only sees women as the follower of the husband and to obey all the instruction from her husband. For example, Okonkwo does not want any of his family to stay in home while the others are busy working in the yam field. He will ensure that all of his wives and children are working in their yam field. Okonkwo also threaten his children not to give them any food if they do not help their parents in the yam field. Okonkwo sees his daughter, Enzima portrays the male character which he never stops hoping that she should be a man. While he sees his son, Nyowe portrays the characters as a woman which he does not like. Here we can see that Okonkwo only favour his children with a good quality.