Women In Third World Fiction Essay, Research Paper

In many of the stories that we have done this semester

women are treated like dirt. They are used as slaves, they do nothing but

chores, and they are uncared for by there husbands. Things Fall Apart,

No one writes to the Colonel, Who Cares, The Shroud, and The

Unwanted are all stories where men are strong and women are weak in

all aspects of life. The authors of all these stories show us how women

are only valued for there services, such as cooking , cleaning, and

laundry which some are forced into doing, such as in the story Who

Cares. Women are not only forced into doing chores, they re also forced

into marriage. Chinua Achebe is the only author that assigns important

roles to the women found in his story, but the women in his story are

still treated with no respect at all.

The women in Things Fall Apart are used primarily for chores

around the house and for childbirth. The women in Okonkwo s tribe are

seen as inferior in life, mind and body. Men are seen as strong beings,

who have no emotion, no fear, and are eager to kill. After Okonkwo kills

Ikemefuna he returns home feeling very distraught. When did you

become a shivering old woman, he asks himself, you, who are known

in all the nine villages for your valor in war? How can a man who has

killed five men in battle fall to pieces because he has added a boy to

their number? Okonkwo you have become a woman indeed He feels

that he has become a woman because he is feeling remorse and sorrow

over Ikemefuna s death. The main role of women in this society is for

them to be good, loyal housewives. They re expected to look after

children, clean, and have meals ready by the time their husbands return

home. If they did not do all of their responsibilities their angry husbands

often beat them. Okonkwo s tribe allows wife beating as it was a

common solution to disobedient women. Achebe describes two instances

of wife beating. One in which Okonkwo beats his wife, Ojiugo, and one

in which another man of the tribe, Uzowulu, beats his wife. He beats her

first when she does not have dinner prepared for him and she is off

plaiting her hair instead of cooking for him and his children. He also

beat her once when she was pregnant until she miscarried. Even though

the women in Okonkwo s tribe are treated poorly, they do have their

strong points. When Okonkwo was exiled from his village of Umoufia

and forced to return to his motherland. His uncle gives a speech directed

at him shortly after he comes to his motherland. He asks Okonkwo if he

knows why they often name their children Nneka, or Mother is

Supreme. Okonkwo does not know and shakes his head. His uncle,

after laughing at his ignorance explains to him why they do this. He

explains that one s mother is always there for their children. He says, A

man belongs to his fatherland when things are good and life is sweet.

But when there is sorrow and bitterness he finds refuge in his

motherland. He was trying to tell Okonkwo that a man becomes happy

and sad throughout his life, but when things become really bad one s

mother is always there to take care of and comfort him.

The Shroud, Who Cares, and The Unwanted are 3 short

stories where women are treated like slaves. No one cares for them, they

are only good for doing chores. In The Shroud, Madhav s wife dies

during childbirth and he doesn t even care. He just lost his wife and

child and all he cares about is getting a good night s sleep. Madhav and

Ghisu always saw her as a slave and nothing more, she would grind

corn, cut grass to buy a seer of wheat flour for them and they won t even

give her a proper burial. They treated her terribly all her life, they never

cared for her or respected her, even after she died they made fun of her.

When the two of them start wasting the rupees that they were given to

buy her a shroud on alcohol Madhav says, She was a good soul, poor

girl! Even in death she is feeding us. In Who Cares, and The Unwanted

women are also forced to serve men weather they like it or not. Not only

are they forced to do what their husbands tell to, but they are forced to

marry who their parents want them to marry. Neither of the women in

the two stories want to get married but they have no choice. They are

pushed into serving their husbands no matter how they feel about it. The

women are seen as objects that must do what they are told and to do it

without answering back.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez s book also shows us how women

receive little respect in their society. The Colonel doesn t seem to care

about his wife at all, he just wants her to cook and clean for him. He

doesn t care about what she does or says. You have no consideration.

You re willful, stubborn, and inconsiderate, says the Colonel s wife to

him. After she says this to him he just sits there not saying anything.

Then she says, You ought to realize that I m dying; this thing I have is

not a sickness but a slow death, and again he doesn t say a word. He s

choosing to ignore her. He s not concerned with how she feels or what

she has to say. Even when she gives him suggestions as to what he

should do he pretends that he doesn t hear her. The Colonel gives his

wife no respect at all. He lives his life as if his wife doesn t exist. He

only cares about himself. The Colonel has a very wild imagination, his

wife always has to be realistic and bring him back to reality. He never

appreciates his wife s help or what she does for him.

All of these stories show us how women are portrayed in poor,

less fortunate societies. Women are only good for cooking, cleaning, and

doing what their husbands tell them to do. Basically they re nothing

more that slaves. In each story they are treated like garbage, they re

beaten ignored and uncared for by all men. The men in these societies

will never realize how important women are until they re not around any

more. Okonkwo s uncle said it best, A man belongs to his fatherland

when things are good and life is sweet. But when there is sorrow and

bitterness he finds refuge in his motherland. Which means that when

things are going bad our mother, who is a women, will always see us

through it.