Critical Essay on Feminism in Things Fall Apart

Conclusion

Natural sexism is profoundly inflected by the cultural production and neo-colonial dependency creating an essential political lesson on the liberation of Africa and historical agenda. Things Fall Apart a powerful work of fiction fails in inscribing the effects of sex differences and gender politics in the society. It rather over textualizes men affairs portraying the social totality of the colonial period. The mother of Okwonko is never directly mentioned in the whole narrative space of Things Fall Apart. The book has been analyzed numerous times but the issue of feminism and the role of women in the pre-colonial period. The book talks in depth about the torturous nature of the relationship between Okwonko and his father, and that of his son Nwoye. The book has shown the place of a woman in the society mostly and how they are affected by social and political forces. It gives a clear view of the control and initiative that is prescribed for the male. The absence of Okonkwo mother can be deemed as the subjective nature of the text. Okonkwo is portrayed as misogyny and neurotic displaying his masculinity and subjectivity through on the novel. All the female characters, wives, daughter, and Mother, are portrayed as receding in the background of Okonkwo. They never achieve their prominence unlike the male, father, and son of Okonkwo. This paper will analyze in details the mention of Okonkwo's mother in Things Fall Apart and deploy the textual explanation to create a gender-based discussion based on the constitution of postcolonial African critical disclosure. It will cover the lack of gender politics in the novel and the challenges posed by gender in the post-colonial area.

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In Things Fall Apart, the mother of Okonkwo is mentioned in the ninth chapter, not named though just mentioned. It occurs after Okonkwo participated in the ritual death of the youth Ikemefuna. After three days he is trying to get into terms with the trauma of the events. He is irked by the weak nature and unmanly behavior that he portrayed through showing off his emotions during the ritual. A man is not allowed to succumb to trauma. The mention of her mother is in such a non-significant nature that last only one paragraph. "He began to wonder why he felt uneasy at all. It was like a man wondering in broad daylight was a dream had appeared to be terrible to him at night. He stretched himself and scratched his thigh where a mosquito had bitten him as he slept. Another one was wailing near his right ear. He slapped the ear and hoped he had killed it. Why do they always go for the one's ears? When he was a child, his mother has told him a story about it. But it was as silly as all women's stories." This shows that the memory of Okonkwo mother is greatly suppressed. He is woken up from a restful sleep by a minor irritation from a mosquito bite. The statement 'silly women story' clearly goes into the pattern of intra-familial and intergenerational conflicts that have been discussed in the novel. The relation between Okonkwo and his mother are in the background unlike his relationship with his father and his son. Nwoye. His mother, wives, and daughters remain nameless throughout the novel. The novel is male-centered if viewed from the feminist perspective. While this is incontrovertible, this is only a part of the story.

Nwoye, Okonkwo son is seen to still hold the memories of her mother. She still holds onto his imagination and psyche. He pretends to have a manly indifference to the motherlode. Okonkwo is different. He has completely suppressed her mother creative role in his life. He portrayed her as a neutral being with no general function. He portrays his father a figure of the psyche and is quite vigilant in his action and quite conscious with an active mind and powerful presence. The novel portrays the stories of simple nature with an extraordinary emblematic nature with a subversive resonance on the narrative and fractious nature of the liaison between cultures.

It is quite important to note the structure of reverse gender in the hierarchy in nature irrespective of the female and male personae. The narrative clearly shows the protagonists obsession with maleness and fear of femaleness. It shows male as being superior to thinking. The narrative portrays women as weak and fearful. They are full of cowardice and sentimental in their dealings. In the personae of his mother tales, Okonkwo is afraid of the feminine attributes that he portrayed during the event. Normally, he operated as a screwed person who operated in isolation removed from the social context of the Umofia community. His imagination is seen as phallocratic in that it is meant to present maleness in crude terms. He is seen as being aggressive and neurotic in masculinity. There are incidences of him beating his second wife during the peace week. He also beats his son Nwoye when he is seen in the new community of Christina converts. He orders beheading of the advancing party and the colonial administration that ends up breaking the village assembly.

The post-colonial African critique acts as an effective discourse that disentangles biological and literal maleness from phallocentrism. It elaborated representational and perceptual orders that make male as being the center of the family. Male is seen as the center of reason and intellect. It was important to note that humans are born into recorded codes that they grow into as they study them. These codes apply equally to men and women."the biological identity of a woman counts and is real. But the woman, contrary to what some men think, is more than a biological aperture as Anais Nin said. Women biology is indeed an important and necessary aspect and necessary aspect of her, but it is not all she is, and it should not be used to limit her." This show the functioning of the phallocratic values that define the functions of male and women. Gender is erected by patriarchy that is combined with different modes of production even if it is a more privileged term in relation structure.

Conclusion

What things Fall Apart is only a fracture of a true representation of the ambiguous nature of gender in Africa. It is conceptual in ideologies and expands into the postcolonial African fiction. Other writers have also included this in their savage indictment of the sexual exploitation of women through fundamentally construed parts, the boastful masculinity of Neocolonial Africa theorists and male critics wish to engage feminism in reclaiming the tradition.