Summary: Masculinity Vs. Femininity In Things Fall Apart

Things Fall Apart “Okonkwo’s fear was greater than these. It was not external but lay deep within himself. It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father. Even 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 a name for a woman, it could also mean a man who had taken no title. And so Okonkwo was ruled by one passion-to hate everything that his father Unoka had loved. One of those things was gentleness and another was idleness.” (13) Chapter 2 Thematic Idea: Masculinity versus Femininity
Situation: The
This shows two ways he tries to keep his sons from becoming feminine by teaching them how to plant and harvest yams and also driving out the laziness in them. In Okonkwo’s tribe the yam was regarded as a sign of masculinity and a man who could feed his family off of the yams was very highly regarded in the tribe. However this stopped women from being able to help plant and harvest yams because only a man could successfully yield a yam. Okonkwo also made sure that his sons were not lazy as laziness was considered a feminine trait in his village. Okonkwo often threatened his sons life if they were lazy because he was afraid if he didn’t they would become feminine. Okonkwo knew that they were too young to completely grasp the difficulty or the reasoning of doing these things but thought that they were never too young to start learning these things because it was very difficult to become a great
His son, Nwoye, from a very young age seemed more feminine than masculine. He told make believe story’s, he was cowardly, and he wasn’t capable to do a lot of work. Okonkwo didn’t want his son to become feminine as that was a sign of weakness and it would dishonor him to have a son that was feminine. In order to drive this out of him, Okonkwo often beat Nwoye to help him become a man. However when Nwoye saw Catholicism for the first time he found a way to escape his abusive father, which would be considered very cowardly in the village. When Nwoye finally leaves his father Okonkwo looks over how he could have had a son like Nwoye. While looking over how this could have happened he at first disowns his son saying that he Okonkwo a great man couldn’t have had a son so “degenerate and effeminate” Still pondering over how this could have happened to himself he finally decides that great men can have a disgusting son that was more woman than man like how “fire begets cold impotent