What Is Patriarchy In Things Fall Apart

Behavior Normalized:
A Study of Gender and Their Roles in Things Fall Apart A patriarchy is defined as “a group or government controlled by a man or a group of men”. This means that everything runs through men. The Ibo tribe of Nigeria in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is most certainly a patriarchy. Men are clearly regarded as superior to women. Men take care of all the governmental and legal decisions in the village, while women are limited to jurisdiction in the household. But men treat women very abusively. How men see women, both socially and as partners and people is very flawed. This is exemplified when Nneka;s twins are left to die in the forest, when the women are beaten, and the compensation given to Ogbuefi Udo for his dead wife.
Men hold all positions that carry political and social influence. Women are expected to take care of domestic issues, usually limited to cooking and child rearing. Being a successful woman in the Ibo tribe is giving birth to children, but not twins. If a woman had twins they were immediately left to die. One woman in the tribe knows this too well, “Nneka had had four previous pregnancies and childbirths. But each time she had borne twins, and they had been immediately thrown away (in the Evil Forest). Her husband and his family were...highly critical of such a woman...” (Achebe 151). Due to the fact that Nneka bore twins, she is considered not successful by her husband and the tribe. Though it is no fault of her own, she’s considered to be an underachiever maternally. Today, the world generally judges success as someone who makes money, or who loves what they do. But in colonization era Africa, it is exceedingly different. Prosperity has a different definition for the
For instance, there are two types of crime: male (intentional) and female (unintentional). But this commonplace disparity is glaringly evident when the elders of Umuofia come together to make a decision of what to do about the murdering of tribesman's wife. The elders give a young virgin to the man as a form of compensation, “The elders...met to hear a report of Okonkwo's mission. At the end they decided...that the girl should go to Ogbuefi Udo to replace his murdered wife” (Achebe 12). This decision by the elders shows the lack of equality in the Ibo culture. The girl that is given to that man had her whole life in front of her. She is just given to a man like she is property, or some sort of item, something to barter or trade