Take home quiz

                                                                                                                       Ariel Solis      

                                                                                                                        English 201

                                                                                                                        Elizabeth Whitley

            In the novel “things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe many aspects of life are such as woman’s rights. Woman’s rights bothered me the most because it had a closer impact on being that I am a female as well. Women in this novel had very little to no say in things that happened in their community. They were just told what to do and expected to do so. Women were not view as equal to their husbands. With all that being said there was a scene that interest me the most was in character ten. There was scene a man by the name of Uzowulu, that was presenting a case against his wife and her, who had to be taken away by her bothers, with her children because she had been beaten for the past nine years. He also wanted in return the bride price he had paid. In the text the author quotes “When she was pregnant he beat her until she miscarried” (91). Now usually with a case like this the husband would receive some punishment for being abusive to his wife, but since this is different culture things are handled differently.

Another topic that stuck me was marriage. A lot of the males characters mentioned were in polygamous marriages. The only advantage I found in these kinds of marriages was the women being there for each through thick or thin. There was scene where Okonkwo was beating one of his wive’s terribly and the wives tried to help her. The author states “it is enough Okonkwo, pleaded from reasonable distance” (39). Other than that I feel as if polygamous marriages complicate things more. I believe that marriage is between two people. I also believe that this jus makes the marriage a lot more difficult. This means you have more women and children to take of care.

Fatherhood was a huge topic in this novel as well. Being that Okonkwo had a difficult childhood due to the fact that he barley provide for his family, this affect the relationship he had with his son. The author quotes, “I will not have a son who cannot hold his head up in the clan. I would sooner strangle him with my own hands” (33). Oknokwo was very abusive towards Nwoye because of this fear of failure. And because of this I fell as if he failed at being a good father. He cared more about pride than his son’s feelings.