READING AS A WOMAN…
Reading As A Woman: Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart And Feminist Criticism
Does “reading as a woman” change one’s perspective on a text? Can a woman read as a woman after being conditioned, generally, to read as a man? In his On Deconstruction: Theory and Criticism after Structuralism, Jonathan Culler (1982) addresses these issues and forms several interesting conclusions. What does it mean to read as a woman? Culler’s answer is brief and relatively problematic: “to read as a woman is to avoid reading as a man, to identify the specific defenses and distortions of male readings and provide correctives”.1 Though Culler fails to outline these defenses and distortions, he does provide some fundamental guidelines for such a reading. Accordingly, to read as a woman requires that one approach a work from a feminist vantage and therefore, not regard the work from the purview of patriarchy. Consequently, in order to read Chinua Achebe’s 1969 literary masterpiece, Things Fall Apart, as a woman, one must query readings which suggest that Okonkwo is the only major figure in the novel, and alternately analyze the motivations of principal female characters who are thoroughly developed within the work.
Before beginning this feminist analysis, we must review the historical and cultural context in which Things Fall Apart was written. Things Fall Apart, first published in 1958, was initially written as a response to colonialist representations of Africa and Africans in literature, specifically Joyce Cary’s Mister Johnson (1989). Cary’s work positions Africans in the typical colonialist frame: as individuals without motives, forethought, or knowledge other than base responses to their environs. As JanMohammed (1986) states, “colonial literature is an exploration of a world at the boundaries of civilization; a world that has not (yet) been domesticated by European signification.” It is a world perceived as “uncontrollable, chaotic, unattainable, and ultimately evil.”
Against this context, Achebe’s novel allowed European readers to perceive Africans through an alternate lens. The Igbo society described by Achebe has definitive and complex social systems, values and traditions. Achebe presents customs such as the abandonment of multiple birth babies, and the sacrifice of human beings as conventions and not barbaric, inhumane rituals. He brilliantly places his characters within an ancient civilization with a labyrinthine system of governance and laws.
Consequently, Achebe’s main character, Okonkwo emerges early in the text as a traditional hero, who has within himself the ability to languish or attain his goals. Achebe’s readers understand that European colonialists do not precipitate Okonkwo’s ultimate downfall. Instead, it is Okonkwo’s seeds of self-destruction, which are deeply concealed in his desire to be the antitheses of his “feminine” father.
Moreover, though Achebe’s text is written in English, the language of the colonizer, it remains authentically African: “Achebe is most successful in expressing his African experience in English and still preserving its African authenticity.”5 The actions, ethos, and characterizations in the text depict a culture in transition, with indigenous practices which may be perceived as untenable to foreigners, but which are ordinary accepted within. Even when certain members of the community seek refuge in the Christian church, it is most often because they find themselves casualties of specific cultural norms: women who have multiple births, albinos, etc…rather than those who are secure in the traditional world.
In addition, as Iyasere (1969) states, reading Achebe’s conventional world as a woman, one cannot merely ascribe to the view that “one of Achebe’s great achievements is his ability to keep alive our sympathy for Okonkwo despite the moral revulsion from some of his violent, inhuman acts.”6 Instead, query whether this sympathy may remain intact for those reading through a feminist lens. Although many critics explicate upon the horrors and injustices Okonkwo inflicts upon the men in his life, (mainly his son Nwoye, his other ’son’ Ikemefuna), most omit any discussion of the abuse suffered by Okonkwo’s wives. However, this critique reevaluates the significance of not only the pain of these women, but also their importance as individuals within their community. Therefore, “by providing a different point of departure (this feminist reading) brings into focus the identification of male critics with one character and permits the analysis of male misreadings.”7 Hence, this work challenges these misreadings and positions the female characters at the center of the text. Instead of focusing on Okonkwo, as most critics have, this reading is focused on two major female characters, Ekwefi and Ezinma, and one minor figure, Ojiugo. They are mentioned only briefly, if at all, by other critics of the text, and when referred to, are examined only in relation to Okonkwo’s actions or motivations. Reading this text as a woman, this author analyzes these characters according to their self-perceptions, as well as societal awareness of them as women, wives, mothers and daughters. Exploring the relationships between these women reveals not only alliances between mothers and their offspring, but also alliances between comrades in arms.
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