A Study of Hegemonic Masculinity in Chinua Achebe’S Novel “Things Fall Apart”

Abstract

This paper investigates the question that how Masculinity has been represented and constructed in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. It focuses on the complete structure and tradition of Igbo culture which celebrates the customs centered on male dominance. The protagonist Okonkwo is the major focus of study. His masculinity is compared with other characters in the story especially Nwoye. Achebe’s narrator of Okonkwo’s character associating description of physical power, authority, wealth and violence portrays masculinity in Things Fall Apart. Nwoye character is there to portray alternative masculinity. Nwoye’s refusal to be a man in traditional sense presents alternative subjectivity which is in conflict with hegemonic masculinity projected by his father. This paper aims to analyze all such depictions of masculinity within the novel to investigate the writer’s stance on the perspective of masculinity. It also aims to investigate how the dominant culture sets the criteria for a man or a woman and decides who is a human. This paper manifests all these speculations along with their actual occurrences in the text.

Keywords: Hegemony, Masculinity, Igbo culture, tradition, Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart