Things Fall Apart 2 Essay, Research Paper

Title of Paper : Things Fall Apart

In the novel, Things Fall Apart, the families play different roles than those of today s families. The men, women, and children all had various chores and activities that people do not do today. The main character, Okonkwo, was the leading male of his household. This means he controls and tells everyone else in his immediate family what to do. Males were more dominant in their society. Even young males had more power than young females. Okonkwo felt such superiority over his wives and children that he often beat them or caused other harm. In today s society men and women share more of an equal role in the family. The may be because generally both adults bring resources and money to the family. In Okonkwo s village, only the men harvested the important crop, yams. This may have caused the men to develop their superiority over females. The main role of women in the novel was to serve their husband. Women cooked for their husband, and did many other chores to comfort him. They also assisted in repairing the huts. The women never received important jobs such as tapping the palm tree for palm wine or harvesting yams. The women were also there to produce children. A good wife could produce many children. In today s society some women might cook or do other comforting chores, but so do many men. Men take care of children as well as women. In Okonkwo s village, taking care of children was a woman s chore. The children even played a different role in the novel s society. Basically, the young men helped their father and the young women helped their mother. The boys might carry around their father s stool or tap his father’s palm trees. The girls would assist in cooking and womanly chores. An important role followed by everyone in the novel was to acquire characteristics of you sex. A male needed to be fearless and be able to produce many yams. This way that male would an important rich person in society. Women needed to be a great cook. Also women needed to be good storytellers to tell the young children the origin of things. The people in the novel had different roles in society than the people of today. This had many reasons, but was caused by the way they lived and developed. Men have superiority over women, but women did not mind because this is all they had ever known.