How are women treated in the novel? Do all members in the community agree with the status quo? 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?
Women are considered as the nurtures and the homemakers which also referred as possessions and only there to serve man’s need back in the nomadic civilizations. This view also is portrayed in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe where women are treated unwell and considered as not important as they have no rights to voice out their opinions. For example, in the novel, Okonkwo beaten his second wife Ojiugo when she was not there to serve him dinner. The action that Okonkwo took already proved that women are not treated well. The other evidence is that the custom that assumed birth of twins brings bad luck and must be thrown in the Dark Forest. In this case, the community does not care about the mother’s feelings who already fight for her life to deliver the twins. As we all know, the mother and the babies are interconnected even before they are born. So, the mother must be sad if her twins must be thrown. This proved that the community agreed with the status quo that view women as only a possessions.
The contributions that the Igbo women made to the survival of their culture is that when a person if is exiled, he will go back to his motherland. Going back to his motherland is referred as to find shelter that will always welcome him if other places in this world seem to cast him away. For example, when Okonkwo and his family was exiled for seven years, they went back to Okonkwo’s motherland where they lived with his mother’s family, Uchendu. Based on the case, women also contributed to their culture as the shelter that a man can found if he does not belong anywhere.
Women’s roles also experienced evolution where nowadays, we can see there are more and more women leaders surfaced throughout the world. Women now are not seen as a man’s possessions but as a gender that also can rise like men. Many women now have careers, professional and also act as the motivation for people. For example, Mother Teresa is a good example of successful women where she was known for her contribution in medical care. Other than that, Oprah Winfrey was known as the first and only Afro-multiracial billionaire from 2004 to 2006 even her past life was miserable yet she was able to rise higher than others. these evidences had proved that women’s roles had completely changed where women are not as useless as before. We can conclude that women’s roles nowadays are far more different and they are seen as the individuals that had gone through a lot; child birth, abuse, challenges and all.
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