In the classic bestseller Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, readers receive a plethora of cultural information about the Ibo. Achebe executes the story of Okonkwo and the other characters in Umuofia, where the story takes place, quite well, but it can sometimes become confusing to read about all the culture while still attempting to understand the plot. Due to this particular story’s ability to make it somewhat difficult to retain all the information given, it is helpful to analyse the components of village life, including both general and behavioural rules, cultural development, the primary relations in Umuofia, and some forms of recreation.
The Ibo have many rules, and only a few are mentioned in Achebe’s story. One of the more …show more content…
Those events are the previously mentioned Week of Peace and Year of New Yams. Another god is Agbala. It is extremely knowledgable, with the most contact to humans. Agbala has a spokesperson, which is a priestess. Despite women being considered inferior, in some ways, a woman is the Oracle’s messenger.
Speaking of how women are treated, there is a lot to understand about the relationship between men and women. The main dynamic is that men are superior in comparison to women due the idea of masculinity being more important than femininity. While this is a concept one can often find in older cultures, this particular culture has its own way of letting men have a superiority complex, although it wouldn’t be considered one in their time and area. Wives were treated like property in some ways, a public display of wealth. The husband buys his wives from her family, and she has no say in the matter. In the village Okonkwo lives in, they have the decency to at least use broomsticks to figure out the price, while others haggle as if they are buying a simple animal, such as cattle. The more wives a man has, the wealthier he was. If it wasn’t evident yet, polygamy is accepted and something to strive for, if you are a man. The wives make food for their husband, and weed the yams their male counterparts planted at three set times. They are not allowed to plant yams, but instead plant coco-yams and other “feminine” crops. Wives are often beaten for any mistakes they made. There is an interesting relationship between man and woman, as one could easily tell, but less noticeable is the relationship between father and
The Ibo have many rules, and only a few are mentioned in Achebe’s story. One of the more …show more content…
Those events are the previously mentioned Week of Peace and Year of New Yams. Another god is Agbala. It is extremely knowledgable, with the most contact to humans. Agbala has a spokesperson, which is a priestess. Despite women being considered inferior, in some ways, a woman is the Oracle’s messenger.
Speaking of how women are treated, there is a lot to understand about the relationship between men and women. The main dynamic is that men are superior in comparison to women due the idea of masculinity being more important than femininity. While this is a concept one can often find in older cultures, this particular culture has its own way of letting men have a superiority complex, although it wouldn’t be considered one in their time and area. Wives were treated like property in some ways, a public display of wealth. The husband buys his wives from her family, and she has no say in the matter. In the village Okonkwo lives in, they have the decency to at least use broomsticks to figure out the price, while others haggle as if they are buying a simple animal, such as cattle. The more wives a man has, the wealthier he was. If it wasn’t evident yet, polygamy is accepted and something to strive for, if you are a man. The wives make food for their husband, and weed the yams their male counterparts planted at three set times. They are not allowed to plant yams, but instead plant coco-yams and other “feminine” crops. Wives are often beaten for any mistakes they made. There is an interesting relationship between man and woman, as one could easily tell, but less noticeable is the relationship between father and