Tellez, 1

Cesar Tellez

Mr. Thomas

English 175 - 4

05-20-22

The Patriarchy in Things Fall Apart

The story in Things Fall Apart has various themes and cultural values represented within

it. One theme that is extremely prevalent within the story is the idea of masculinity. Masculinity

plays a major role within Okonkwo’s life and our own lives. Masculinity is present within all

aspects of our lives and especially our families. In his book Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe

uses the effects of Okonkwo's obsession with masculinity in order to demonstrate the effects of

patriarchal ideas on families and men.

In order to understand the effects of the patriarchal ideals on families and men, we need

to first understand why Okonkwo is obsessed with masculinity. Okonkwo perpetuates the

patriarchy because of his deep obsession with the idea of manliness and how it correlates to his

father. Okonkwo's idea of manliness came from being the exact opposite of his father, Unoka.

Unoka was considered to be a failure by Okonkwo, because he was a poor man, so poor that his

family would barely have enough to eat. The sad state of Unoka's fortune, or lack thereof, wasn't

in any part due to misfortune, it was Unoka’s own doing. Unoka was known to be lazy; this

laziness resulted in his family's poverty. Unoka’s failure is solely on himself, and this is

explained in chapter 3 when Unoka visits the Oracle to discuss his crops. Unoka had done

“everything” right to have a plentiful harvest. He would always “sacrifice a cock,” “clear the

bush and set fire to it,” and everything else that was supposed to give you a good harvest

(Achebe 14). The Oracle told Unoka the truth that the gods were not mad at him. The Oracle told
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Unoka, “You, Unoka, are known in all the clan for the weakness of your machete and your hoe

… you stay home and offer sacrifices to reluctant soil. Go home and work like a man.” (Achebe

14). Unoka was a lazy man and Okonkwo despised him for that. Okonkwo set his definition of

manliness on strength and on being successful, the opposite of his father, and this resulted in

Okonkwo spreading this idea into every aspect of his life, and especially on his children.

Okonkwo took this idea too far to the extent that he became overbearing and extremely

controlling because he didn’t want his family and himself to fall back into poverty. Okonkwo and

their patriarchy set their ideals in order to improve ourselves, our family, or our society.

Okonkwo and his idea of masculinity represents patriarchal ideas in Things Fall Apart.

Just like the real life patriarchy, Okonkwo places an emphasis on manliness and what it means to

be a man. This idea of being a man has strict boundaries on what man can and can’t do. Men are

supposed to be strong, in control, and unforgiving. Men aren’t allowed to show emotion or

weakness. Okonkwo only saw anger and strength as the “only thing worth demonstrating”

(Achebe 24). In the few moments where Okonkwo showed emotion, he would quickly snap out

of it by saying that he “has become a woman” and that was like a sin to Okonkwo (Achebe 56).

Achebe shows us Okonkwo’s definition of masculinity in order to symbolize real life patriarchal

ideas. Both only allow men to show anger and strength while not allowing men to be emotional

or kind because it is seen as being weak. Weakness is seen as a thing belonging to women, who

are “inferior” to men. Men are supposed to fit within these strict standards and if they don’t they

are shamed or rejected by the patriarchy. This is further exemplified by how Okonkwo shames

and beats Nwoye for being “weak” and for not fitting into his strict guidelines. Achebe

epitomized the patriarchy perpetuated by Okonkwo and that of our real life to help the reader

better understand its detrimental effects on men and families.

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Achebe shows the great impact of Okonkwo’s obsession with masculinity on his family

to demonstrate how patriarchal ideas affect family dynamics and how it dictates the man's role in

a family. Okonkwo was extremely hard on his family because he did not accept any weakness

from them. They all had to fit perfectly into his image. For the men, this meant that they had to

be as strong or even stronger than him, and for the women this meant that they had to be

submissive and to not question authority (men). Okonkwo's family is described to have lived in

“perpetual fear of his [Okonkwo's] fiery temper” (Achebe 10). Instead of the men being the

protectors of the family or being a good part of the family, they were the primary aggressors.

Men always had to be in control, from Okonkwo's point of view. Therefore, instead of helping

the family, they would berate and attack each other. This created a family where people weren’t

allowed to express themselves and therefore people were miserable. Instead of being a loving

entity, Okonkwo's family became a hostile environment for all due to his patriarchal ideas.

Achebe shows that patriarchal ideals turn families, which are supposed to support each other,

into hostile environments where people have to hide their true selves.

Okonkows son, Nwoye, wasn’t anything like his father. In the eyes of Okonkwo, his son

was more like his father, Unoka. Nwoye didn't fit into Okonkwo's idea of manliness because he

was “lazy,” and because he enjoyed things that only women were supposed to like. Instead of his

fathers tales of war and bloodshed, Nwoye enjoyed more the stories from his mother -- stories

about a “tortoise and his wily ways,” or stories about “the quarrel between Earth and Sky.”

(Achebe 46). Although he enjoyed these stories, he knew that he couldn't outwardly partake in

the stories that were meant for “foolish women and children”(Achebe 46). Nwoye knew that his

father wouldn't approve of it, so he had to be a man and leave that part of him behind. If he

didn’t leave behind those “weak” or “femine” interests, Okonkwo would try to “fix” him with
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“constant nagging and beating” (Achebe 11). If he wanted to avoid the abuse, Nwoye had to

pretend to be just like his father. “This ‘acting’ was simply to gratify Okonkwo, who was always

happy when he heard Nwoye complaining or grumbling about women, as that convinced him

that “in time he would be able to control his women-folk” (Adegbite). Due to Okonkwo's

standards, Nwoye was forced to pretend to be someone else and he had to belittle his family as

well. Through this Achebe shows how patriarchal ideals (Okonkwo's view on masculinity) force

people to hide their true selves in order for them to survive.

Okonkwo’s masculinity (and in turn the patriarchy) resulted in his family and his ideals

falling apart. Things really started to change for Okonkwo when Nwoye ran away to become a

Christian missionary. The Christians showed up for Nwoye just when he needed them. They

were different from his family and his culture. They didn't berate him, beat him, or oppress him.

They didn't follow his father’s strict definition of masculinity. Nwoye took the Christians as an

opportunity to break away from his old culture, and an opportunity to “be free from the

unnecessarily overinflated masculinity of his father whose violent excesses he has for long been

a victim of.” (Korang). Nwoye was finally able to be free from the oppression of the patriarchy.

He was finally able to be himself, and to be a part of a loving environment -- the opposite of his

family.

Through the effects of Okonkwo's obsession with masculinity on his family, Achebe

shows how patriarchal ideals lead to a constant oppression on individuals and families. In Things

Fall Apart, Achebe sets up Okonkwo’s ideals to resemble the real life patriarchal ideals so the

reader makes the connection between the two and later its detrimental effects. Living with the

“perpetual fear” of the consequences of not being perfect resulted in people hiding their true

selves and on families turning into hostile environments. Within the book this resulted in Nwoye
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abandoning his culture and his family in order to escape these oppressive ideals. Although

Okonkwo's patriarchal ideals were meant to help his family become better and stronger they

resulted in them being worse off. Through this Achebe shows how truly devastating the effects

of the patriarchy are on families and men because of how they turn people against each other and

how it can drive people away. Achebe does this because he knows that we cannot change things

for the better if we do not understand its effects and why it needs to be changed. We can begin to

change things for the better by understanding its negative effects.

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Works Cited

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart: With Connections. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1995.

Adegbite, Tobalase. "Masculinity and cultural conflict in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart."

International Journal of English and Literature, pp. 1-7,

https://doi.org/10.5897/IJEL2015.0764. Accessed 20 May 2022.

Korang, KwaKu Larbi. "Making a Post-Eurocentric Humanity: Tragedy, Realism, and Things

Fall Apart." The Ohio State University, pp. 1-30,

bcsd61.schoology.com/attachment/2321247770/docviewer. Accessed 20 May 2022.