Notes for Things Fall Apart: Chapters 10-13
Here are my notes for a seminary on Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. The seminary was about the position of women in Umuofia and how justice is carried out in the Ibo society (which incidentally had been written as IBO on our paper).
Women
- So far, women have been portrayed as weak and inferior.
- “the ceremony was for men” — Men have their say in the village politics, as opposed to women.
- “If a woman runs away from her hsuband” — Women hare the property of their respective husbands. They are like pets.
- Ekwefi’s pursuit of Agbala’s priestess and Ezinma: Both genders care, but women show it more.
- “we are giving you our daughter today. She will be a good wife to you. She will bear your nine sons like the mother of our town.” — Women are treated as a kind of goods, and their main purpose is to carry children.
- “He raised his voice once more twice in manly sorrow”, “the endless wailing of women” — Women are portrayed as more emotional than men are. Men cry in a specific way.
Justice
- There is no corruption and no jail. However, different people are valued differently, and there is exile.
- “a crime against the earth goddess” — Crime against the gods, not against the people.
- “[Obierika] sat down in his obi [...] why should a man suffer so grievously for an offence he had committed inadvertently?” — Obierika questions the system, but he ignores it anyway because it belongs to the Igbo people’s paradigm.
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