Literary Analysis Things Fall Apart
Perfectly Content
Ezinma is perfectly content. She is an example of a stereotype and “The problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story” (Adichie, Ted Talk) . What Adichie is saying about a single story can apply to the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Things Fall Apart is about a man named Okonkwo who encounters the issue of living in a Ibo tribe when white people come to colonize it. Okonkwo is a fascinating protagonist that we could talk about, Instead we will be discussing his daughter Ezinma. Ezinma has the potential to be a strong character, Instead she became a victim of a single story. Ezinma was perfectly content with this. The reason she is because …show more content…
Gender roles are prevalent in this story and they keep Ezinma from meeting her full potential. You can see this in her youth, teen, and adult years.
We learn fairly early in the novel that Ezinma is “[Ekwefi’s] only daughter,”(Achebe 40). Ezinma is her only child they develop this strong and mature bond. Ezinma respects her mom on such a mature level she calls her “Ekwefi, as her father and other grown-up people did.”(Achebe 76). This novel can be connected to the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Lee’s protagonist Scout also is a mature non feminine girl similar to Ezinma. Scout calls her father, Atticus by his first name. Scout thought “[Jem and Scout] were far too old to settle an arguement with a fist-fight, so we consulted Atticus. Our father said we were both right,”(Lee 3). Her father bestowed these ideas of maturity to Scout and her brother. Atticus treats Scout as an individual very similarly to Ekwefi. This is why Scout and Ezinma are both wise girls. Ezinma’s mother enforces critical thinking skills.When Ezinma told her mother that her eye is twitching Ekwefi tells …show more content…
Though due to her culture's gender views she can’t reach to her full potential. She is perfectly content with this because she has a personality much like her father’s. There is irony in the story because of Ezinma being her father's favorite, regardless of her being a female.This use of situational irony helps develop the theme of gender roles in the novel. The Ibo people teach their girls to “shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller,”(Adichie,We Should All be Feminists). We can conclude that Ezinma would be a strong leader and woman if she were in a culture where gender equality was prominent. Being in a society where gender equality was accepted would have saved her from becoming a single
Ezinma is perfectly content. She is an example of a stereotype and “The problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story” (Adichie, Ted Talk) . What Adichie is saying about a single story can apply to the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Things Fall Apart is about a man named Okonkwo who encounters the issue of living in a Ibo tribe when white people come to colonize it. Okonkwo is a fascinating protagonist that we could talk about, Instead we will be discussing his daughter Ezinma. Ezinma has the potential to be a strong character, Instead she became a victim of a single story. Ezinma was perfectly content with this. The reason she is because …show more content…
Gender roles are prevalent in this story and they keep Ezinma from meeting her full potential. You can see this in her youth, teen, and adult years.
We learn fairly early in the novel that Ezinma is “[Ekwefi’s] only daughter,”(Achebe 40). Ezinma is her only child they develop this strong and mature bond. Ezinma respects her mom on such a mature level she calls her “Ekwefi, as her father and other grown-up people did.”(Achebe 76). This novel can be connected to the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Lee’s protagonist Scout also is a mature non feminine girl similar to Ezinma. Scout calls her father, Atticus by his first name. Scout thought “[Jem and Scout] were far too old to settle an arguement with a fist-fight, so we consulted Atticus. Our father said we were both right,”(Lee 3). Her father bestowed these ideas of maturity to Scout and her brother. Atticus treats Scout as an individual very similarly to Ekwefi. This is why Scout and Ezinma are both wise girls. Ezinma’s mother enforces critical thinking skills.When Ezinma told her mother that her eye is twitching Ekwefi tells …show more content…
Though due to her culture's gender views she can’t reach to her full potential. She is perfectly content with this because she has a personality much like her father’s. There is irony in the story because of Ezinma being her father's favorite, regardless of her being a female.This use of situational irony helps develop the theme of gender roles in the novel. The Ibo people teach their girls to “shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller,”(Adichie,We Should All be Feminists). We can conclude that Ezinma would be a strong leader and woman if she were in a culture where gender equality was prominent. Being in a society where gender equality was accepted would have saved her from becoming a single