Things Fall Apart: The Role of Women in Society

Much of the traditional Igbo life presented in this novel revolves around structured gender roles.

Essentially all of Igbo life is gendered, from the crops that men and women grow, to characterization of crimes. In Igbo culture, women are the weaker sex, but are also endowed with qualities that make them worthy of worship, like the ability to bear children.

The dominant role for women is: first, to make a pure bride for an honourable man, second, to be a submissive wife, and third, to bear many children.

The ideal man provides for his family materially and has prowess on the battlefield. The protagonist in the novel is extremely concerned with being hyper-masculine and devalues everything feminine, leaving him rather unbalanced.

Much of the gender theme in the book centres around the idea of balance between masculine and feminine forces – body and mind/soul, emotionality and rationality, mother and father. If one is in imbalance, it makes the whole system haywire.

Things Fall Apart: Summary of Chapter 5

Just before the harvest, the village holds the Feast of the New Yam to give thanks to the earth goddess, Ani. Okonkwo doesn’t really care for feasts because he considers them times of idleness. The women thoroughly scrub and decorate their huts, throw away all of their unused yams from the previous year, and use cam wood to paint their skin and that of their children with decorative designs. With nothing to do, Okonkwo becomes angry, and he finally comes up with an excuse to beat his second wife, Ekwefi. He then decides to go hunting with his gun. Okonkwo is not a good hunter, however, and Ekwefi mutters a snide remark under her breath about “guns that never shot.” In a fit of fury, he shoots the gun at her but misses.

The annual wrestling contest comes the day after the feast. Ekwefi, in particular, enjoys the contest because Okonkwo won her heart when he defeated the Cat. He was too poor to pay her bride-price then, but she later ran away from her husband to be with him. Ezinma, Ekwefi’s only child, takes a bowl of food to Okonkwo’s hut. Okonkwo is very fond of Ezinma but rarely demonstrates his affection. Obiageli, the daughter of Okonkwo’s first wife, is already there, waiting for him to finish the meal that she has brought him. Nkechi, the daughter of Okonkwo’s third wife, Ojiugo, then brings a meal to Okonkwo.

Things Fall Apart Background

Political Context

• Approval of the entire clan is necessary before any major decision is made.
• Egwugwu, the representative of the ancestral spirits, are integral in administering tribal justice.
• Ndichie, the elders of the village, have a place of honour in the clan and their advice is respected.
• The priests get their power from the Oracle, and their decisions are never questioned.

Religious Context

• Ordinary people gain access to the gods through the Oracle.
• The gods do not show themselves physically, but speak through the priests or priestesses.
• The ancestors, embodied physically in the egwugwu, are revered.
• There is the belief that the ogbanje, or spirit child, returns to plague its mother, ensuring that all her children die.
• Twins are taboo and placed in the 'evil forest'.
• The concept of the chi, or a person's identity in the spirit land, is important in Igbo religious beliefs.
• A good chi can mean success, while a bad chi can mean misfortune.


Economic Context

• Sharecropping provides a financial base for young men who do not inherit a barn from their fathers, or are simply in a financial crises.
• Cowrie shells are the medium of exchange.
• The family unit provides the basis for economic success.
• Each individual, even the children, has a specialized role that contributes to the family's

To Da-duh, In Memoriam Comprehension Passage

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions set on it.

In the following extract, the narrator and her sister have come from New York to visit their grandmother, Da-duh, in the Caribbean.

One morning toward the end of our stay, Da-duh led me into a part of the gully that we had never visited before, an area darker and more thickly overgrown than the rest, almost impenetrable. There in a small clearing amid the dense bush, she stopped 10 before a royal palm which rose cleanly out of the ground, and drawing the eye up with it, soared above the trees  around it into the sky. It appeared to be touching the blue dome of sky, to be flaunting its dark crown of fronds right in the blinding white face of the late morning sun.
Da-duh watched me a long time before she spoke, and then she said very quietly, "All right, now, tell me if you've got anything this tall in that place you're from."
I almost wished, seeing her face, that I could have said no. "Yes," I said. "We've got buildings30 hundreds of times this tall in New York. There's one called the Empire State Building that's the tallest in the world. I can't describe how tall it is. Wait a minute. What's the name of that hill I went to visit the other day, where they have the police station?"
"You mean Bissex?"
"Yes, Bissex. Well, the Empire State Building is way taller than that."
"You're lying now! She shouted, trembling with rage. Her hand lifted to strike me.
"No, I'm not," I said. "It really is, if you don't believe me I'll send you a picture 50 postcard of it soon as I get back home so you can see for yourself. But it's way taller than Bissex."
All the fight went out of her at that. The hand poised to strike me fell limp to her side, and as she stared at me, seeing not me but the building that was taller than the highest hill she knew, the small stubborn light in her eyes began to fail. Finally, with a vague gesture that even in the midst of her defeat still tried to dismiss me and my world, she turned and started back through the gully, walking slowly, her steps groping and 70 uncertain, as if she were suddenly no longer sure of the way, while I followed triumphant yet strangely saddened behind.
(From To Da-duh, In Memoriam in Reena and Other Stories, Paule Marshall, The feminist Press, 1983.)

(a) What characteristic of the royal palm is suggested by EACH of the following?
(i) "... rose cleanly out of the ground" (line 11)
(ii) "... drawing the eye up with it" (line 12)
(iii) "... flaunting its dark crown of fronds" (lines 16 -17) (3 marks)
(b) Why did Da-duh watch the girl for a long time before she spoke? (2marks)
(c) What does the writer suggest by the phrase "All the fight went out of her ..." (line 54)? (2 marks)
(d) In lines 68-71, the writer states that Da-duh was "... walking slowly, her steps groping and uncertain, as if she were suddenly no longer sure of the ..."                                                            Give the real reason why she was walking in that way. (2 marks)
(e) Explain why the author is "strangely saddened" (line 74) (2 marks)