[2015] Jocelyn Clayton: Gender Roles in Things Fall Apart

Things Fall ApartGender Roles

Female Expectations Be submissive to menBear many childrenPrepare mealsProvide structure to the family

Male ExpectationsProvide for familyBe Successful Be Strong and DominantRaise many Sons

Traditionally dressed Igbo women

Average Igbo Family

depiction of the strong Igbo man

Important QuotesEven as a little boy he had resented his father’s failure and weakness, and even now he still remembered how he had suffered when a playmate had told him that his father was agbala. That was how Okonkwo first came to know that agbala was not only another name for a woman, it could also mean a man who had taken to title. (Chapter 2)Okonkwo ruled his household with a heavy hand. (Chapter 2)Without looking at the man Okonkwo had said. “This meeting is for men.” The man who had contradicted him had no titles. That was why he had called him a woman. Okonkwo knew how to kill a man’s spirit. (Chapter 4)“When did you become a shivering old woman,” Okonkwo asked himself. (Chapter 8)