Abuse In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

Abuse is an unhealthy element in American society, but that is not the case everywhere else. All over the globe abuse is a regular, and common thing. Males are superior over women. This is the way in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Okonkwo is hot-headed and often takes it out on his wives and children. He hits them, points guns at them, and even kills them. He came from a bum of a father, and became different. He made a big name for himself and became respected in his village. From this Okonkwo gaines a big ego and which makes him think he is above all else. In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo victimizes his family. Okonkwo pressures his first son to be great, which cause Nwoye to be depressed and not want to look up to his father. Nwoye ends up being a failure in his father's eyes, and …show more content…
He held a gun up to his wife's face, just to prove a point. He repeatedly degrades them and makes them lesser. But one of the worst things that he does is hit his wife during the week of peace, which is illegal. “when [Ojiugo] returned [Okonkwo] beat her heavily…[Okonkwo} had forgotten that it was the Week of Peace...Okonkwo was not the man to stop beating somebody half-way through, not even for fear of a goddess”(Achebe 29) “There is a public outcry, not because of the physical battering, but; rather, the timing of the occurrence - The Week of Peace: "You have committed a great evil.'..It was the first time for many years that a man had broken the sacred peace. Even the oldest men could only remember one or two other occasions, somewhere in the dim past."14 Iyasere (1969) notes "the peace of the tribe as a whole takes precedence over personal considerations."He could have continued, elaborating that particularly in reference to women, the unanimity of the patriarchy is the main priority of the community, rather than the physical safety of its